


feel the fire, feel the air

by viewpoint



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood Magic, Dragon Riders, Dragons, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Fights, M/M, Magic, Swearing, Swords, Swords & Sorcery, Violence, Witchcraft, Witches, hyunjin is a bad boy, kind of, minho is a bad boy too, seungmin is an asshole at first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:08:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 65,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24341824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viewpoint/pseuds/viewpoint
Summary: Some people are born special. Some are born with evil running through their veins, and some are born to fight them. The latter's wrists are marked with signs that bond their lives with their dragons.Seungmin lost his dragon two years ago, and he never learnt how to be happy again. He's a living shadow, he bears a wound that cannot be healed.Everything changes when he feels a calling in his mark again. Calling of the dragon which is bonded with someone else.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Original Female Character(s), Hwang Hyunjin & Kim Seungmin, Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin, Kim Seungmin/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 71
Kudos: 149





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello! just here to warn you that there will be some fighting scenes, so there may be a lot of violence described. don't read if you're not an adult or you don't take scenes like that very well. otherwise, enjoy!

During the full moon, Malgora looked the most beautiful. Her usual dark purple scales reflected the light in thousands of shades, starting with pink, through her standard purple, finishing with bright blue. She was spreading her wings even on the ground. It was her typical habit, but during the full moon, she was doing it more often, wider, as if she was always ready to fly away. It wasn't just presenting her majesty and Seungmin knew that. He smiled encouragingly, lied his hand on the old friend's head and leaned his forehead right next to it. The mark on his wrist tingled pleasantly.

"Don't be nervous, pretty."

Full moons were times when dragons' magic protection was the weakest. It still existed, but the risk was much bigger. Not the wisest time to choose for witch-hunting. If they had a choice...

The beast roared quietly as she opened her eyes again when Seungmin finished his usual dragon-human hug.

"I know, I know. Just a few more minutes."

The night was cold, although it was the beginning of August, and the stars were nowhere to be seen. They were waiting to start their mission somewhere in the middle of the forest, Seungmin didn't know this area. Witches rarely chose places like this for their lair. Actually, it was the first time in Seungmin's six-years career.

There truly was no choice.

Macaro Clan has been oppressing the neighbouring villages for three years already, and Seungmin had been trying to stop them since their beginning. Three years among creatures that could live for hundreds of years was like a blink of an eye, but this was an especially dreadful kind of witches.

The most dangerous monster is the one that can hide among humans. The midwife was one like that. Midwives could hide their sharp teeth and gross grey skin, they could change their form to healthy-looking young girls. Their usual practice was hiding among normal midwives and kidnapping children. Cutting women's bellies. Killing their families.

Midwives drew their energy from newborns' blood.

This night Seungmin finally knew where the clan's Mother was. During the previous three years, he killed dozens of Macaro midwives and reduced their population to about seven witches, but the clan could never be stopped if the Mother was alive and kept finding new creatures that could join her rotten family. He couldn't waste the chance.

Malgora roared again, but this time differently, not as she does to Seungmin.

_She feels her._

Seungmin stood up from the ground and picked up his sword. He checked his silver daggers in the sheaths and the chain attached to his belt. Then, he greeted a familiar heaviness of his waistcoat with a little sigh.

_An illusion of safety._

Last but not least - his pentacle necklace. He was ready.

Was he? In all these years, Seungmin has never felt such a doubt, such a nervousness before.

_She shouldn't be there. It doesn't feel right._

He shook his head remembering his uncle's words.

"They call you the best Hunter of our times. You're the one to protect them, boy. You won't run away from your destiny."

_Ahh, fuck it._

"Lead the way, pretty. It's time."

***

The world was small when you looked at it from a dragon's back. Everything was just a blur, you were the biggest creature alive. Trees, mountains, houses, everything was just a joke, fragile creation. You ruled them all. You were the king of nothingness.

Seungmin was happy.

He could find the happiness of the flight, even on a killer's mission. Truly marvellous what a bond with a dragon could do.

All he could see was a mosaic of trees, but Seungmin wasn't worried. Malgora knew the way.

His dragon was young, but at her short time of living, she has created a really strong magic instinct, typical for dragons at least twice as old as Malgora. She was special from the beginning, a case happening once in a thousand years. A dragon found by its Hunter in the form of an egg. The most powerful bond that could complete itself so quickly - Seungmin had her since her first days. They say dragons growing up with their Hunters usually were much more intelligent than other beasts their kind. Seungmin smiled again thinking about his friend.

He was never afraid when he was with her.

He found her when he was fourteen, and started hunting at the age of eighteen when she was big enough for him to ride at her back. She was not much bigger than a horse at this time, but she was so energetic and smart that Seungmin wasn't worried about her. She was as ready as he was after ten years of his hunter training.

Even though people joked sometimes about his dragon being 'small', he could never be more proud. At the age of eighteen Hunters were usually finding their dragons, after some time of feeling the call of their marks. Some people at that age were just at the beginning of their search. Yet Seungmin has been with his dragon for four years already. Malgora being young couldn't stop him from being one of the best Hunters in the area.

 _No_ , he thought. _The best one_.

Ten years had passed since their bonding. She was not this small anymore.

Malgora's roar cut off Seungmin's sentimental thoughts. Immediately, his mind returned to their mission and he prepared for landing. When he lifted his body a little to give Malgora a sign, she roared frightfully once again.

"Yeah, baby. Let's get this bitch."

In the next second, Malgora was flying straight to the ground. Every ordinary person would immediately fall off or panic. But Seungmin wasn't an ordinary person. He wanted to laugh joyfully, and he totally would if he wasn't aware of the seriousness of the situation.

This was the best part of his job.

Malgora landed effectively, digging her claws to the ground, roaring for the third time, with her head raised to the sky. Seungmin saw few trees falling due to the impact of the air. He wasted no time when he jumped off her back. There was no need to search for the witch, there never was. Her eyes were shining between the trees as if she was a cat. Uhh, no. Cats weren't disgusting.

He was walking surely towards the creature, without any hesitation. She tried to scare him off with a cry, but it didn't impress Seungmin in any way, as he was feeling his dragon's presence right behind his back. Seungmin rarely needed her help anyway.

The witch attacked in the next second with a powerful magic bullet but Seungmin had his sword in his hand already. He swiped it without changing his expression as it didn't cost him any energy at all. The bullet bounced off the blade and lost its features, becoming not harmful at all. Seungmin hid the sword in the sheath on his back and grabbed the silver chain. He heard the witch's frustrated scream, she was showing her distorted teeth in a desperate trial of scaring Seungmin off again. She sent another bullet from her hand, but this time it was so weak that it bounced off Seungmin's waistcoat without causing any damage. She had wasted her energy on the first one.

_Too stupid for a Mother._

Not much left to finish the encounter. With one determined move, Seungmin shot the chain into the air as if it was a lasso, watching its end wrap around the witch's neck. He immediately pulled it to himself, causing the witch to choke. Killed by silver. Will never come back. It was so easy.

_Too easy._

His blood froze when he heard his dragon roar in pain.

_Malgora!_

He turned around in a second to see Malgora covered in at least five witches as it was a plague of worms. Magic could not hurt a dragon. Teeth and rusty blades could.

Malgora kept roaring stridently as the witches kept biting its skin and stabbing it with whatever at least a little bit sharp they could find before coming there. So this was the plan. Lure him to this place and make the whole clan attack his dragon. He and Malgora were too strong together. They had to be separated.

Immediately he ran back to Malgora. Her whole body was covered in dark blood, as the witches kept creating more and more deep wounds, tearing her apart as if she was their meal.

_No! NO! You have to fly away!_

Seungmin knew she wouldn't leave him there, even if she was there to die. No. He couldn't think like that.

The dragon kept shuddering trying to knock off the attackers, as she couldn't burn them up on her own body.

As soon as Seungmin reached the nearest witch attached to the dragon, he pierced her with his sword. His attack was messy and desperate, blinded by panic. He missed the heart, and he knew that the witch will reborn, but he couldn't care less. Malgora. All that mattered was saving Malgora. He didn't even look at the witch's falling body as he grabbed the dragon by the nape.

"Go! GO!"

Malgora used the rest of her energy to rise in the air. Seungmin looked behind, to see the rest of the witches fall down struck by the air. Looking to the front again, he noticed how uneven Malgora's flight was. He felt burning of tears appearing in his eyes. In the next second, his tears fell on his face freely when he cried in pain.

"Aargh!"

One of the witches didn't fall off. Seungmin saw her teeth soaked in his ankle. Her face was covered in silver as his blood was dripping from the growing wound.

_At least if I die, I will take this bitch to the grave with me._

His ability to think sober began to fade when the witch's teeth got through his muscles to reach his bone. She was so strong if his silver blood hadn't killed her immediately.

_The Mother._

She couldn't last long, though. When he felt her grip getting weaker, he started kicking.

_Fuck my leg. Fuck the pain. Just die already._

When the witch finally became too weak to hold herself on his leg and the dragon, Malgora became too weak to continue to fly too. Right after the Mother hit the ground, Malgora began to descend in dangerous speed.

_This won't be nice._

Seungmin didn't remember the hit, he just remembered the echo of the power it held. With his face glued to the ground, overwhelmed by pain and covered with dirt, he closed his eyes. The sight of Malgora's body lying next to him turned into darkness.

***

Seungmin woke up covered with cold sweat. Every night he dreamed the same dream and every morning was greeting him in exactly the same way. First was the pain in his chest, like a mini heart attack, broken heart or other shit. Echo of the memories repeating themselves in his head every time he tried to sleep. It was passing quickly, right when his brain was coming back to reality. Even though it wasn't becoming weaker and the pain was exactly the same every morning, Seungmin got used to the feeling. Two years. He didn't care.

The pain of his ankle was coming next. This one was faded, like his body didn't really want him to suffer, just to remind him the witch's teeth were there. Seungmin thought it was funny how it almost didn't leave any scars, but his bones didn't let him forget. This one wasn't that bad too, just annoying as hell.

The last one was his least favourite, even though it wasn't as painful as the previous ones. It was the burning of his mark that came to him a few months after he had lost Malgora. The feeling he knew from the time when he hadn't met her yet. Like he would have to find her and complete the bond again. But there was no Malgora anymore. It was just a reminder of how useless he had become.

He looked at his wrist covered with a small piece of cloth to protect him from everyone who believed in his death. Better if they continued. A black mark in a shape of two small dragons was invisible for him, but he always remembered it was there, he felt its shape so strongly that he was able to distinguish one dragon from another. He could tell where the particular wings were, where were the tails and the heads of the dragons. If he could cut it off with his blade, he would do it right away. Well, he actually tried once.

Seungmin realised it's not a good time to drown in thoughts as the smell of the tavern hit his nose. He winced when he let himself breath in the smell of urine mixed with sweat and wine. Gross place. Just like every other place like that.

He gathered his things quickly, ready to leave. There wasn't much of it, just a bag and a dagger. He didn't take his coat into account, as the nights became colder and this shitty place has made him sleep in his clothes. He snorted thinking about how his equipment has changed in the last few years. His dagger wasn't even sharp anymore.

He went down the stairs struggling with his leg as if he was at least twice his age. Way back home will be as unpleasant as getting there.

Maybe a beer or two before going out was not such a bad idea.

He changed his route to meet the host instead of the door out and immediately got shocked.

"Nada?"

She was standing there cleaning the tables as it would help this place in any way. Her long auburn hair was curled gently like always but got so long that Seungmin thought that next time he meets her, it will probably reach her thighs. So beautiful. She was looking at him with her doe eyes with shock mirroring his own.

"Seungmin? What are you doing here?" Her voice didn't show any sign of anger or bitterness that Seungmin definitely deserved.

"I didn't see you here yesterday." He said, ignoring her question.

"Oh, I'm only here three days a week. I help at the tavern, and the owner lets me sleep in one of the rooms for his visitors. It's a good deal."

"Ah, I see..." He didn't want to ask what other services she had to provide to earn the owner's help.

"Are you staying 'til tomorrow? I wish we could talk more, I feel like I haven't seen you in ages!"

"Um, yeah. I'm staying." Lie easily came through his throat. Well, nothing had truly changed since the last time.

"Great!" Nada clapped her hands enthusiastically. Her childlike attitude came through the barrier of uncertainty, reminding him of old times. "My friend can take my place today. I'll get us a bottle of wine, and you will tell me how you've been doing, yeah?"

***

The room Nada ‘rented’ surprisingly met the conditions needed to stay alive more than for three days. The air was safe to breathe in, the bed was relatively clean, and there were almost no stains of questionable origin.

_I will remember how you treated me, you old prick._

While looking at the girl's sleeping face, Seungmin was repeating parts of their conversation in his head. Nada had stood by his side for so long he could barely believe it. Even though she tended to act childlike, she had a strong will and was not easy to discourage. She stayed with him when he was always away on a mission, she stayed with him when he broke apart. Seungmin smiled, but his smile faded as quickly as it appeared. He felt bad that he couldn't even force himself to miss her.

They drank a bottle of wine and started a new one right away. Seungmin was telling her how he had gone for a search two days ago and how he still hadn't found what he came for. He told Nada he still had to stay for a little bit. Another lie wasn't any harder than the one he gave her at the very beginning. He didn't say what was his aim, or what he was truly doing whole this time when they hadn't seen each other. Better if she didn't know where to look for him. The evening came quickly, and as quickly the conversation wasn't satisfying anymore.

His eyes went from her face to her chest, which wasn't covered by the duvet. She looked beautiful with the pale light of the evening illuminating on her full breast, making her skin look like honey. Almost beautiful.

With a sigh, Seungmin stood up to cover her up by the duvet, so the deep scar going through her whole side disappeared from his sight.

_I couldn't even protect you._

He wore his trousers next and grabbed the coat, careful not to wake her up. The mission wasn't even that hard since Nada's sleep was always deep. He left the room without looking back, hurrying to leave the place for good and forget about everything, like he always does.

In contrast to the situation from a few hours before, the tavern's main room was busy now. Nada's friend was running around the clients, apparently in need of help too. The girl was much younger than Nada, she differed in many ways with her blonde hair and lost expression. Seungmin thought that crowds of people were scaring her off and wondered why she chose this job. He wanted to laugh at himself next when he realised his stupid assumption that the girl had any choice. When she was passing by a group of drunk guys with a tray of beer, one of them slapped her ass, causing her to drop everything on the ground. The girl blushed hardly, Seungmin noticed as tears in her eyes were reflecting the light. The burst of laughter caused by her reaction echoed the one that arose after the slap. The girl crouched down picking up the glass awkwardly. Seungmin turned his head.

Once again, his way to the door was interrupted by a person from the past.

"Sneaking out again, huh?" He heard his ex-best friend's voice. What a cursed place. "Just like the last time."

"Fuck you, Jisung." He thought that this trip couldn't get any worse, but there he was. "As if you were the person to teach anybody... Aren't you the one that had been following Nada like a puppy for years? And look at you know, still here, again fucking drunk."

Jisung snorted, turning his head to his beer again. He looked like he wasn't about to say anything else, but Seungmin knew he wanted to. Deep in heart Seungmin still cared about him. For a second, he felt bad about everything Jisung went through because of him. Actually, he despised himself for this. Well, nothing could be done now.

Seungmin decided to keep his thoughts to himself, but when he was about to turn back to the entrance, Jisung's voice surprised him once again.

"Be careful."

_Huh?_

Jisung explained before Seungmin brought himself to ask. But still, the boy refused to look at Seungmin, as the sight of him was stinging his eyes.

"I know where you live now, I saw you there."

Oh, shit. So many questions appeared in Seungmin's head now. For how long had he knew? Had he told anyone? Did Nada know? If he knew, why had he never decided to meet him? Actually, the last one didn't need the answer.

"Just be careful, okay? I heard Traitors are getting close to the East."

Seungmin barely stopped his snort now. Of course, old naive Jisung.

"Bullshit." He said when he finally turned to the door and left this place and the ones that he used to love behind.

***

When Seungmin woke up, he wasted no time to go meet his uncle. He grabbed his backpack full of citronella, hoping it's still fresh enough to make at least a small portion of a potion or maybe even two. He had wasted four days already and had to meet the reality of wasting another twenty minutes to overcome going down the stairs again. Every fucking morning.

When he entered the magazine of uncle's shop, he saw him working already.

"Busy day?" Uncle Jinhwan jumped slightly, surprised by Seungmin's appearance. Seungmin smiled kindly.

"Seungmin! You had no time to greet old uncle yesterday, huh? You sneaked upstairs like a guilty teenager." Seungmin knew that the reproach in uncle's voice wasn't serious at all, even though it definitely sounded like it.

"I came back late at night, didn't want to bother you. Sorry, uncle." Uncle Jinhwan waved his hand dismissively as he returned to cooking his potion. This one was almost absolutely black and stank so bad that Seungmin was truly amazed how his uncle was able to keep his face so close to it without choking.

"Don't stare at me, boy, come and help."

Seungmin moved without a word of complaint. He took the old piece of wood they were using as a cutting board and a big knife, in contrast to his own - sharp. Next, he grabbed a bunch of cedar, as he was sure what his uncle was making and started to cut it fine.

The potion was usually made early in the morning or in the late evening. The morning was a wiser option, since the evening was tricky, changing to the night too quickly, too transient to catch. The black potion, called Swamper, was one of the hardest to make, with the strongest magic concentration they could carry out. They had to take care of every detail so it maintains its magical properties. Well made Swamper could scare almost every type of ghost off and keep them far away from your household for months. To be honest, Seungmin thought that its smell would scare him off, too.

Seungmin knew that the cedar was to be added next, as it was increasing strength and endurance. It was needed for some of the potions to keep its properties for longer or to make them work in general. He was proud of this knowledge, 'cause it was making him closer to the magic, thing that some thought was completely impossible.

Seungmin never wasted an opportunity to learn, and usually, he knew things that were unavailable to other people. As a child, he learned how to read what made him a huge step ahead of everybody else. He knew that only women could perform magic, as "creatures which are the closest to nature, placed in a position which will never be achievable for men". He didn't know if he believed in this description, but he was sure, that men, in fact, couldn't perform magic. What Seungmin and his uncle could do was like five percent of what witches could perform.

Magical abilities weren't a choice, girls with them were born once in a while, like boys with silver blood and dragon mark were. ‘Special’ boys were taken from home at the age of eight to start a Hunter Training and prepare for finding their dragons, ‘special’ girls weren't that lucky. They were usually finding out about their abilities as teenagers, as they didn't have any visible features besides their blood turning black, sometimes it happened earlier. The only creatures that could teach you the magic were witches, and let's set it clear, no girl dreams about grey slimy skin and sharp teeth. With witches the change was inevitable.

Even though no one usually wants to turn into beast this kind, the ‘gifted’ girls had no choice. Joining the clan was the only option for them to stay alive, there was no place for them in society. Being detected meant witch court. Well, you probably know this from scary stories.

Seungmin winced when he reminded Jisung's warning.

Not everyone believed in their limits. For some people, power resulting from riding a dragon was not enough. They wanted more, they wanted to be stronger, more dangerous, more imperious. If they met magical creatures that could complete the spaces they were lacking in every day, why do kill them, instead of making an alliance with them?

They were called Traitors. Idiots that believed that witches could teach them the magic if they stood on their side.

Seungmin had never seen any of them, he avoided them his whole life, but he heard a lot of stories. He heard that they were forming groups on services of a specific clan. They were burning villages, taking hostages who were to be used as witches' power engine. People were saying they were even crueller than witches themselves.

Well, witches at least weren't burning whole villages up, just to get few people whose blood they could use.

Seungmin's usual drowning in thoughts had been interrupted by stinging of his finger. He stopped everything that he was doing just to look numbly at the silver leaking from the cut he accidentally made. Seeing his face, with slightly opened jaw and anxious eyes, somebody could think that he got shocked by the colour his blood had taken.  
Noticing something was wrong, uncle Jinhwan stopped his work too. When he saw the blood, he quickly turned around to the shelf behind them and found a small jar. He opened it and grabbed Seungmin's finger, so the blood could fill in the jar. Seungmin didn't say a word waiting for the blood to stop coming so he could come back to work. He knew since his blood was neutralising magical properties, his uncle will use it to neutralise the potions that didn't work as they should.

Next uncle Jinhwan separated the cedar he was going to use from the one that got destroyed by drops of silver. He added the proper one to the Swamper. Seungmin was somehow disappointed.

Once again, he felt out of place.

_I'm not the one who creates magic, I'm the one who kills it._

"It's okay, boy. Take care of the citronella next."

He sighed torn out of the trance and returned to his backpack. He thanked himself for taking it with him right away in the morning, as it meant no more meetings with the stairs, for some time at least. Taking with him everything he needed for the day had become his habit in the past two years, as he discovered that being forgetful can be quite painful sometimes. He opened the backpack and took out all the citronella he was able to find in the forest.

Uncle Jinhwan looked at it with an astounded smile.

"Amazing." He said. "So it's truly possible to find it there?"

"Yeah," Seungmin answered. His voice was calm, as his mind turned back to reality. "But it's not as easy as they say. Witches have made citronella grow in this region by accident, so it's still unusual."

Uncle Jinhwan nodded.

"Good. Whatever happened, good for us."

Seungmin forced a kind smile and nodded too.

"So what should I do with it? Cut? Grind?"

"Grind it. When you're finished I'll tell you what to do next."

Uncle Jinhwan left the room to open the shop and welcome customers. Seungmin as always was left alone to cook potions his uncle had taught him to make. He was a fast learner, and during the half of the year that passed since his uncle let him stay there, he managed to learn how to prepare most of the popular potions. He was still struggling with the harder ones and was wasting a lot of ingredients on practising, but he still thought that he was a useful helper.

The work was going slowly, 'cause Seungmin lost most of his energy. Citronella was hard to grind, as its leaves were very thin and dry, but Seungmin wasn't worried about it. Even though he knew what he was doing and he was good at it, it wasn't satisfying at all.

_I should have died with her._

Not the first time he was struggling with doubt and regret. Why was he still here if Malgora was dead? What was the point of his staying alive? He used to be one of the strongest Hunters alive, and now he couldn't even go down the stairs without pain. He felt so old. God, he was twenty-six and he was so old.

His uncle entered the room again and looked at the state the citronella was in.

"Add a few cyclamen flowers." He said when he saw that it was almost fully ground. "Three would be fine."

Seungmin stood up to look for the cyclamen at one of the shelves. They had alive cyclamen in the pot. Seungmin really liked the flower, it was usually bright pink or purple, he was falling for these colours easily. It was also poisoned.

When he reminded about the last fact, he got curious about the new potion.

"What are we doing?" He mumbled.

"Casanova." Uncle Jinhwan answered, and Seungmin looked at him alarmed. With his eyes and mouth wildly opened, he looked like an angry fish.

"Vendor Maller believes that he's selling way more stuff when he's using it," Uncle Jinhwan continued, "‘cause ladies buy more clothes while flirting with him." He was talking casually, he wasn't even looking at Seungmin.

That was it. Seungmin was done, he was so done.

"I wasted four days to get the citronella so some old prick could flirt with his clients?" He said slowly, careful to put enough of bitterness to each of words. "I slept in the forest and filthy taverns for this?"

"More or less, yeah." The answer was so apathetic that Seungmin felt sick.

"Are you joking now?! I wouldn't set my foot out of this fucking door if I knew! What the hell is that?!" Seungmin was really angry now. He wasn't thinking about everything that uncle Jinhwan had done for him. He wasn't thinking about how he was always tolerating him and his moods. He wasn't thinking about how he respected the older man. Uncle's answer hit him instantly.

"You know what? You are a joke." Seungmin felt stinging in his heart. He really wanted to throw up. "You'd waste one day, not four if you finally learnt how to ride a horse. But no, you're too good for that, aren't you? Wake up, boy. You're in a normal world now, in our world. Learn how to live in it."

Uncle Jinhwan turned around to get back to his clients. He was composed all this time.

Approaching the door, he looked at Seungmin once again. Seungmin was scared to move at this point, he was looking at his uncle incredulously, his heart beating fast.

"One more thing, boy. You will never ride a dragon again."

***

Seungmin woke up with a headache. Great. One more thing to be bitter about. When his mind came back to reality and left the residue of his usual dream behind, he reminded about the previous day and felt sick again.

After the argument, he came back to his room and stayed there 'til now. Seungmin might be a loser, but no one could sulk as obstinately as him. Yeah, that was definitely his greatest talent.

He was determined to never leave his room again and never talk to anyone, ever. Well, his bladder had different plans.

With a sigh, he stood up from the bed and headed for the door. He opened it with resignation and got greeted by a plate with three buns and meat his uncle had baked yesterday laying on the floor. For firm two minutes, he was standing there looking at the plate like a lost child. After that, he decided to get angry again and slammed the door with a growl.

He came back to the bed, but when he sat at it again, he had the biggest urge to hit his face with his palm.

_Oh my god. You've been childish enough._

He opened the door once again to take the plate with him. When was the last time he'd eaten? He couldn't remember, but his ribs looking like they were about to break through his skin and run away from his body were there to remind him that it was quite a long time ago.

He started eating, and the guilt finally hit him. His uncle was thinking about him even in situations like this. He was silently taking care of him, even though he was never showing affection, he was there for him when no one was.

He felt the food growing in his mouth. He set the half-eaten meal on the floor and lied in bed again. Silently he prayed for sleep to come.

***

His uncle had taken care of him the next day, and the day after too. Even if they didn't see each other's faces, he was always leaving meals for him, making sure his dumb nephew won't die out of hunger while sulking.

Seungmin wasn't even mad anymore. Really, he wasn't. He was ashamed, all this situation was so unnecessary. He knew it was his fault, he knew he really was a joke. He actually wanted to apologise, but for some reason, he couldn't make himself do it.

He was staring dumbly at the bowl with half-finished meal. His appetite was as dead as always, but he tried to make himself eat at least a little bit since he has found himself being too weak to stand up from bed the previous day. The food itself wasn't helping. His uncle wasn't a good cook at all, even though he was trying to make it at least eatable. Well, actually he wasn't trying at all. Seungmin was even more surprised to see something falling to the mash that was supposed to be called "food". Something that looked like a tear.

_Oh._

Yeah, he was hurt too. During all the time he had spent alone, there was one sentence repeating itself in his head.

You will never ride a dragon again.

Don't think that Seungmin didn't know that, he did. It was pretty obvious that Malgora won't come back. That he will never feel her smooth scales under his fingers again. He won't meet her eyes, he won't feel the air hitting his face... He will never be happy again.

The thing is, those obvious facts had never made their place in his head before. He had never accepted and fully realised them. He was so focused on just existing, so focused on keeping the shield of "not caring" on because he didn't want them to damage him any more. And uncle Jinhwan had made that happen. He let them make a nest in his brain.

He heard himself let out a full sob. During those two years, he had never truly cried before. He was so empty. His shield had fallen now.

You will never ride a dragon again.  
"Aghh fuck you!" He jumped from his seat and threw the bowl against the wall. The sound it made falling into pieces wasn't natural at all.

Seungmin fell down on his knees out of shock when the sound of a huge crash has reached his ears. This couldn't be caused by a bowl.

Screams were what came next, then he realised the sounds of the whole fuss were coming through the window. It was piercing the air, so painful to hear. Seungmin tried to get up, but after just two steps, he fell again with a cry of pain. His mark started burning his skin as he has never felt before.

_What the fuck. What the FUCK._

Again he forced himself to stand up. He had to check what was happening, he had to... He had to make his uncle safe.

He ignored the pain of his ankle when he was running down the stairs. Maybe he just wanted to call it running, purposely ignoring the memory of the part when his ankle had won over him and made him roll down like a sack of potatoes. He thought he could feel his knees turning black and blue.

He finally made it to the front door and opened it gustily. The smell of smoke hit his face.

The world was on fire.

Well, maybe not the whole world, but his village for sure. People were running around, trying to find a safe place, screams were coming from the places where the fire got... too close to people. In the distance, he saw a flock of sheep fleeing terrified as their wool was burning at their bodies. Their escape was suddenly interrupted when another flame fell on them from above, and large claws rose some of the remainings into the air.

_Oh no._

They fell to the ground again, the dragon wasn't interested in sheep, having much better snacks there which its Hunter allowed him to eat.

No, not Hunter. A Traitor.

Seungmin could see two dragons flying over the village, he also saw small groups of people attacking and killing villagers. Traitors without dragons. The Red-Blooded.

Immediately he turned around and ran to check the shop.

"Uncle?!" he shouted, but there was no answer. He checked both of the shop's main rooms hastily, but they both were empty.

_Fuck, uncle, where are you?_

He was about to call for him again when another huge crash from outside reached his ears and almost made him curl up. There was no time. He turned back to the main corridor, heading to his 'beloved' stairs. He tried not to worry about his uncle and his well-being when he was opening the old chest that had been hidden under the stairs for two years now. After all, he was a grown-up man, he should be able to take care of himself. Actually, what could Seungmin do? He couldn't save him, he couldn't help him in any way. Not now. Fuck, he couldn't even apologise…

A third crash. Those dragons had to love havoc as much as their riders.

This was it. Seungmin finally made it to the bottom of the chest and saw his face reflected in silver. He was almost surprised that he didn't look like an old man at all. He hesitated to take it in his hand at first. Long time no see.

Once again he opened the front door but this time with a different attitude.

He felt the heat of the flames at his skin, but he stood upright, sword in his hand, the first time in two years sure of what he's doing.

_Bring me death._

He made the first step.

***

Fighting non-magical creatures must be easier, than fighting with witches right? Simple encounter, without having to be aware of the enemy's magical power and without being careful not to get killed by a sudden shot of magic from its hand. But those men were actually trained in fighting with swords, in contrast to witches who didn't need it at all. Well, at least some of them must have been trained in a standard fight.

Seungmin was trained too, during his Hunter Training years he used to fight a lot, as it was one of his main subjects. He was good, he was hella good. But it was years ago, before he spent six years at killing witches and before he wasted two years of his life at being a loser. Was he still able to do that?

For sure he will check it now.

_Sooner than I thought._

He saw the first raider noticing him and running in his direction, which shouldn't be much of surprise since Seungmin didn't even make at least a little bit of effort to hide. He immediately parried the thrust of his sword, which in his opinion was too hasted and inexact, and made Seungmin land behind him. Bad for the opponent. He used the opportunity and pierced his shoulder with his elbow, making him scream and drop his sword. He couldn't even notice how Seungmin's blade cut his neck. Bye, loser.

He was shocked by how easy it was. He whirled instantly cutting a belly of one of the three men that attacked him next. He could feel his ankle sending him a warning, but he couldn't care less. He slipped between the two remaining raiders, stealing a sword from the corpse he had left there while doing so. This one wasn't silver, but having two blades could make a fight with two people a quite pleasant game. He jumped on his feet again and started parring their attacks as if he was dancing with them. They tried to set him in a losing situation, but Seungmin was too quick for them. He kept turning around and changing his position still blocking their attacks so none of them could actually touch him. After few minutes of the dance, he got bored of those two, so he whirled again parring a thrust of one's sword and depriving the other of his head at the same time. Bye, the second loser. He could see a spark of terror in the eyes of the last guy but he didn't retreat.

_Yeah, play with me._

When he took a swing to attack, the terrible pain of his mark made him scream and drop the swords on the ground. Then it made him land next to it. Before it slowly got a little bit easier on him, big tears rolled off the sides of his face.

His opponent, for a moment, was staring blankly at his suffering shocked by its appearance. After he came back to his senses, he tossed his sword to the air catching it in changed position, so the blade was directed to the ground and Seungmin's body. Seungmin realised his attempt of piercing his neck in the last second. He moved away, and the blade pierced the ground instead. He kicked the man in his knee, making them both scream, as he chose the wrong ankle to do so. He heard a crash and prayed it wasn't his leg. The man fell down next to him, and Seungmin used the rest of his energy to grab the sword that landed the closest to him. The man tried to crawl away, but Seungmin managed to catch him by his clothes. The man wasn't as quick as him to grab his sword again, so Seungmin finished the encounter, not without heavy grasps caused by pain that moving paid him with.

He wanted to stay on the ground and suffer, unluckily he couldn't. With a growl, he forced himself to stand on his feet. One step after another, he couldn't say which pain was worse - this of the overused ankle, or the pulsing horror that was hidden under the material tied on his wrist.

He looked at uncle's shop worrying about his safety, again. He looked right in the moment when a huge flame had fallen on it from the sky. In one second, the whole building changed into a massive campfire.

_NO!_

Seungmin tried to run, but his leg made it rather a lumbering. He only made a few steps anyway. The pain made him flip again, landing with his face in the mud. He screamed terribly, it was nothing he had known before. Nothing like a few minutes before, nothing like anything in his life. He wanted to rip the mark off his skin.

After that, everything became a blur. The last thing he saw was a giant black shadow gliding across the sky.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one may be hard to take, so I'm just gonna say good luck

Right after they set his world on fire, they set on fire his head. As always, the pain was the first thing that welcomed him, insufferable, burning from inside. His hand instantly went to his head, he flinched but restrained himself from making any sound. So next was the realisation. He slowly opened his eyes in fear of what he’ll see. When he looked around, he learned that what he’s able to see was... nothing.

Even though his eyesight was outstanding, his eyes needed a few more minutes to get used to the darkness, so he started exploring with his hands. He felt a wet stone floor under his fingers, right at that moment he also realised the smell. How was this possible that he didn’t feel it before? 

When Seungmin tried to move, he felt the coldness of the floor and right after, he flinched once again. His leg hurt along with the head and the rest of his body, he couldn’t even imagine trying to hold himself on his cursed ankle. His vision was becoming clear and he saw some door in front of him. Seungmin focused to look around to the remaining walls, and he found out that that it was the only possible exit. Not a good sign. 

Slowly he crawled to reach it, careful not to damage his leg any more. It was an unpleasant road, but Seungmin kept himself focused and determined, he shut his brain off from receiving signals of soreness. He lifted himself just enough to reach the latch. Stupid thought, but let’s go. He tried to push it, carefully at first but giving it more and more of strength with every passing second.

_Come on._

He didn’t even notice when he put all his remaining energy into the pointless action, but the latch stayed impassive.

“Fuck!” He cursed, hitting the door with his hand, causing himself even more pain. He forgot about his previous plan of not making any sounds. What was the point anyway? If someone had locked him up in this rathole, for sure was aware of Seungmin’s presence there. 

Okay now, focus. Where was he?

The place was small, it had no windows or any source of light in general, and it had only one door. The floor was soaked with something that could be a mix of urine, moisture and probably vomit. 

_Are urine mixtures my destiny now?_

In one of the corners, he noticed some unidentified item. He crawled closer and sighed heavily. Of course, they left him a pailful. There was a smaller one with water which was quite considerate. 

He closed his eyes, remembering the actions from... Yesterday? Today? He had no idea. Seungmin let himself smell the smoke again, he sent his imagination to the battlefield, as everything was better than letting himself being fully aware of his surroundings. He remembered the pain of his bond mark. When he shifted his attention to it, it was still pulsing, but now more... Calmly? Like the day he found Malgora's egg and was waiting for her to come on this world and accept him as her rider. It was so weird. It was making him feel uncomfortable, out of place. There was no other dragon for him, so why would he feel like that? Suddenly he felt dizzy, he felt sick. He threw up impetuously, of course in the opposite way of the pailful, making this place even dirtier. 

Actually, maybe there was not a real difference. 

Seungmin felt bitterness on his tongue and realised how hungry he was. They probably won't let him eat anything before killing him, because there obviously was no point in that. Funny, after years of hunting witches he'll become their power engine. Of course, right after they cut his throat, they will realise he cannot give them power at all. Seungmin laughed quietly. Maybe he will even manage to poison some of them while dying.

So after all, he'll be given the death he craved so much. After accepting this fact, Seungmin thought it was actually a good death for him. He wouldn't be ashamed of it if you could ask a dead person what do they think about their passing away. He couldn't ask for anything more, that was exactly what he deserved. A cat killed by a mouse. 

He leaned his head against the wall, smiling lightly. The peace will finally come, now he'll just make it closer with sleep. He closed his eyes, his mind started repeating recent memories this time against his will. Right before passing out, he saw a memory of a big dark shadow gliding across the sky. 

  
  


***

The next day brought Seungmin more calmness. His stomach was as empty as the day before, but he learned how to cope with the feeling. He noticed his leg was doing better too, so he made an attempt of standing up. He tried to support himself on the wall, but it wasn’t a very helpful idea since the humid surface was making his hands slide. Even though the support was doubtful, he managed to take a few steps. Seungmin was taken aback by the fact that the pain was almost absolutely gone, leaving back only usual one of his left ankle and a feeling of awkwardness. He was sure that his body would be able to fully heal this day if it has a chance. 

He was sure that his end will happen today. Witches weren’t keeping their victims for too long. If they did, there was always a chance that their engine would run away, so why would they risk it? Having Traitors on their side, they didn’t have to save anyone for later, they could be getting fresh blood every day. 

Seungmin felt like throwing up again. He restrained himself from doing it though, the smell was already making him dizzy. He had no idea what time of the day it was, but he wished the time was flowing faster. With calmness, the day also brought him boredom. 

After taking some rest, he stood up again and started walking around the small cell. At this point, Seungmin was so used to the darkness, that it wasn’t making much of a difference for him. He could see everything perfectly, and he tried not to focus too much at the claustrophobic feeling this place was giving him. He saw a lot of letters carved in the wall, but he promised to himself not to read any of them, even if the boredom was there to kill him. He saw some bloodstains, and there was a rusty torch holder next to the door, which he hadn’t noticed before. He wondered what was the actual purpose of this place before the witches took it over.

It was fatiguing, staying there with nothing to do, anything to look at, anything to even think about if he didn’t want to leave this world in pain. Seungmin thought that at some point he fell asleep for a while, but he wasn’t even sure. Everything was vague.

  
  


***

  
  


He had no idea how much time had passed before the salvation finally came to him. Sound of pushing the latch pulled him out of numbness, and he lifted himself a little bit to face his destiny. He expected the door to open slowly, but it went rapidly instead. After that, two figures came in. 

Seungmin had to cover his eyes with his hand when he saw some light after all this time. The first person, a tall man, was holding a torch in his hand. He had black hair, maybe a little bit longer than he should, he was dressed in black too. Seungmin would describe him as dark in general, his whole aura was cold. The death came to him as a person.

Even more alarming was the feeling of his mark pulsating violently again, right after he moved his hand to his forehead to see the man. He looked at his wrist panicked, but luckily it was still covered by the piece of material, a really dirty piece of material at this time. He hoped that they didn’t notice his reaction. What was the meaning of all of this? 

Seungmin gave a brief glance to the second man too. He wasn’t as tall, but Seungmin noticed that just as the first one, he could be a similar age to him. He was handsome, and oppositely to the tall devil he had a strangely happy aura. Why did he choose the life of a murderer, then?

The devil was looking at him intensely and after a while passed the torch to the other one. The guy hesitated to take it.

_There is a torch holder here, idiot._

“There is a torch holder here.” The man sighed, mirroring Seungmin’s thoughts and Seungmin couldn’t help but smile. The guy left the torch in the said holder and left the room.

The devil showed no reaction, just kept looking, analysing Seungmin’s face. 

“What’s your name?” He finally spoke. Seungmin expected his voice to be low, but it wasn’t the case. He thought that it sounded quite nice actually, even though the question itself scared him to death.

_He cannot know._

There was a difference between just killing him, and killing him knowing who he was. They could slaughter him, but if they knew he used to be a Hunter, not just a Hunter but Seungmin himself... They will make him beg for death. 

“Jisung.” He said. 

Seungmin barely noticed when his massive black shoe moved to crush his face with full strength. For a second, his world went black and quiet, he thought that his life would end there and then. He felt blood in his mouth and panicked once again. He started swallowing it feeling like throwing up, feeling pain with every movement of his jaw. 

_He can’t see it._

The man didn’t let him rest. He grabbed Seungmin’s hair and hit his head against the wall, keeping it there and moving his face way too close to Seungmin’s. Seungmin made a sound but didn’t open his mouth. The man’s gaze was too intense. 

“What’s your name?” He whispered. Seungmin just kept looking in his eyes unable to do anything, unable to speak. 

The man sighed as if he was the one placed in an unwanted situation. He let go of his hair, but Seungmin had no time to feel the relief cause he felt the devil's fist on his face next. He almost choked on the blood still gathering in his mouth. The power of the hit sent him to the ground, so the man kicked his stomach. 

Seungmin kept making stifled sounds, fighting not to let himself open his mouth. He got lifted by his hair and got another hit in the face. His face was already so swollen, he could barely see. Luckily it wasn't bleeding yet. 

He was getting kicks and punches until nothing felt real, until he couldn’t take it anymore. Tears were running down his massacred face.

“Seungmin!” He cried out eventually. With the said word, he let out a wave of silver blood, which run down his chin. “My name is Seungmin.”

Seungmin expected everything from the man then. More punches, more questions, maybe spitting in his face. None of this happened. 

The man's eyes grew bigger, just a little bit as he was trying to show no reaction at all. It failed, Seungmin felt something was off, he just couldn't recognise what exactly. 

The guy moved his arm to his face abruptly and Seungmin jumped expecting another punch. Instead, he wiped the blood from his face away with a sleeve of his jacket. It wasn't delicate or careful at all, it only caused Seungmin more pain. After this, the man just turned away and left, leaving Seungmin and his dismay behind the locked door. 

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin wasn't sure of his destiny now. At first, he thought that the man will tell the witches who he was right away, hoping for some kind of prize. But at least an hour had passed, and nothing happened. And if he wanted him to be killed, why did he hide his blood?

For now, he decided to focus on his body. He felt an intense burning in every place where the man fists and kicks landed. Slowly he moved his arm to lift up his shirt and examine the damage. The skin on his stomach was already turning black and blue, he could see that even despite the darkness. He wondered how his face looked like. 

If he was there to die, this time, his body won’t be able to heal before his execution. For a second, he felt scared when he realised that everything will be even more painful and the witches won’t be gentle for sure. 

_Calm down, Seungmin. It doesn’t matter._

He closed his eyes and started listening to his own heavy breathing. Once again, his mind showed him memories from the attack.

Uncle Jinhwan… Was he still alive? Will Seungmin be ever given a chance to see him again? To apologise? Probably not. 

If his uncle was still alive, he probably didn’t care about that stupid argument anymore. Was he worried about him? Well, maybe uncle Jinhwan wasn’t the most affectionate person in the world, but being captured by witches was a valid reason to worry. 

Ahh… Uncle Jinhwan didn’t see him being captured. He had no idea that Seungmin was still alive, he probably didn’t even take it as an option. Why would he? Seungmin was weak, and it was very likely that he got himself killed. Seungmin felt annoyed at his own thoughts.

_At least you should know I’m not THIS pathetic._

  
  


Then he opened his eyes and became aware of what was surrounding him. The way this place looked wasn’t even this bad, compared to its smell. He knew that after all the time he spent locked there, he didn’t smell that great too. He was aware that he looked disgusting, he _was_ disgusting, and he had no idea how those guys were able to come near him without throwing up. 

If this wasn’t the definition of being pathetic he had no idea what else was. 

And those men… They must have been used to such views, and Seungmin wondered if this fact was significant to him. Maybe he actually shouldn’t focus on this. Seungmin could look or smell repulsive, but those men were repulsive inside. Maybe that was the reason why they didn’t mind coming to this place at all. 

His mind kept wandering to weirder and weirder places, he felt so exhausted. 

_Why didn’t you kill me on the spot?_

  
  


_***_

  
  
  


Probably a whole day had passed before Seungmin heard the sound of the latch being moved, and the door opened again. He had no strength to lift himself to get ready for the next happenings, though. He thought that the devil changed his mind, and he actually came back to kill him, but the person who decided to visit him was actually the ‘happy’ guy who Seungmin saw with him at first. 

“Woah!” He smiled brightly, looking at Seungmin’s black and blue face. “Someone had fun there.”

Did he just call beating someone up fun? Maybe what Seungmin saw at first as him being cheerful was actually him being crazy. 

He wasted no time to sit next to Seungmin, tossing a bag with something at him. ‘Something’ turned out to be a stack of small buns which scattered around his legs. First time after so many days, Seungmin felt like crying out of happiness. He didn’t even mind the mould that was covering most of them, he grabbed one and started eating greedily. He probably looked like he had gone insane. Well, maybe he did. After days of starving, his stomach hurt mercilessly. He’ll probably throw up all the food later. He didn’t care. 

“Congratulations.” The man spoked which snatched Seungmin out of the trance. “You became Hwang’s new toy.”

Hwang. The sound of his name made him stop in the middle of chewing. Hwang. The person who made Seungmin’s every move insufferably painful right after his body had healed and Seungmin let himself hope for the end of pain in general. The person who made him give up, without feeling bad about it for even one fucking second. His name was Hwang. 

“T-toy?” Said Seungmin after swallowing the food and immediately hated himself for stuttering. He put the half-eaten bun to the pocket of his trousers not sure if he’ll be given a chance to eat ever again. He made a silent promise to collect every piece of food that the guy left for him right after he leaves. 

He wondered what meaning and what aim stood behind the ‘toy’. It couldn’t be anything good, he was aware of that. The real question was; how fucked he actually was?

“Does he… torture his toys?”

The guy snorted. 

“Of course!” Seungmin couldn’t get this man. Was really making other people suffer so funny? “You know…” He stopped for a second to pick up one of the buns from the floor and started eating without hesitation. Seungmin felt like throwing up. There was a difference between him being forced to do it, and this man simply choosing to pick up a mouldy bun from the wet floor. “...usually those guys don’t live for too long. But he even decided to give you food! Isn’t it great?” His words became muffled as he kept chewing with an open mouth.

_What the fuck._

“Um… not really?” 

He laughed again. “Well, maybe you can’t see it, but you’re definitely in a better situation than others, aren’t you?”

To some extent, he was right, but the way he saw things was seriously flawed. Then the realisation hit Seungmin. He answered his question. He was the first person somehow willing to cooperate, and he couldn’t waste this chance.

“What’s your name?” He started delicately and felt distaste because of his own words right after.

“Oh, I’m Minho.” He was a little bit surprised by his interest in his name, Seungmin could tell. “What, you like me?” Seungmin frowned and the guy… Minho... laughed loudly at his reaction. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” 

Seungmin decided not to give up, even though talking to Minho was definitely not an easy task for him. He tried to quickly come up with questions that could be useful to him, which actually wasn’t so easy too. 

“So… Hwang… He’s your boss, right?” Laughter again. 

“Nah… There are no bosses here, we all work for ourselves.” He got somehow more focused on chewing his bun, and then he shifted his attention to Seungmin again, just to say “Hwang is a loser.”

Seungmin couldn’t stop himself from giving Minho a subdued smile. They were obviously friends, and it was nothing good for Seungmin, he knew that, but somehow other person showing even false dislike towards Hwang made him feel slightly better. Minho returned his smile, although his smile wasn’t subdued at all. 

“You’re fun.” He said, showing some kind of fascination and so many more questions appeared in Seungmin’s head. Before he got a chance to ask, Minho stood up and headed to the door. “See you later.” He added, and without waiting for an answer left the room leaving Seungmin accompanied only by a growing pile of doubts.

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin kept preparing for the next visit of Minho. Since he had left, Seungmin tried to make up the next questions, anything that could help him in any way. He was planning how to lead the conversation so he could get the information without it being too suspicious.

He kept repeating everything in his head, but the next time he saw Minho, he left him rather disappointed. 

The door opened rapidly, and Seungmin barely had a chance to look at Minho’s face. He could say that his natural half-smile was gone, but Seungmin didn’t think that he looked threateningly. He wasn’t in the mood, but Seungmin wouldn’t call it being mad. Just… uninterested. 

Seungmin hoped to any kind of interaction with him, but the only one he got was Minho tossing a bag with food at him and then closing the door again.

No hi, no fuck you. 

Of course, Seungmin appreciated that they let him eat in general, but he was afraid that his chance to make use of Minho was gone. 

He almost forgot about the worse problem. Hwang. If another day meant another visit of Hwang, Seungmin didn’t want to survive till tomorrow. What he was feeling in his body now was even worse than the day before. He could barely move, and he was sure that he looked horrible. If he was Hwang’s ‘toy’ now, he was there to be tortured, and that was all. Minho literally told him that. So yeah, Hwang indeed was a beast that takes pleasure in hurting people, just like Minho most likely was. But Seungmin won’t survive another beating. He won’t. If Hwang is not willing to kill him just for his own pleasure, he will provoke him until he changes his mind. 

Seungmin wished there was _anything_ in his cell from what he would be able to make any kind of weapon. Even some rusty wire would do. He even crawled to the pailful to check it there was any metal part he could tear out. Nothing that he could use. Nothing he could end his life with if there’s a need to. 

  
  


***

  
  
  


Seungmin got another chance to eat, and meet Minho, the other day. They were giving him an amount of food which wasn’t enough for him to stop being hungry all the time, but it was enough for him to survive. It was always rotten leftovers, but Seungmin was okay with that, same as with the fact that they were feeding him only once a day. 

He thought that it meant one chance to see Minho a day, but that day Minho visited him twice.

The first visit was nothing more than tossing the food and gifting him with two whole sentences, from which the first one was “hello, boy toy” and the second was some witty complaint about “fucking witches” which Seungmin couldn’t even understand. Of course, he was gone without waiting for an answer. 

Seungmin thought that that was it, so when he heard the latch being moved again, he was ready to fight. 

Minho came in obviously in a good mood and closed the door behind him. The tension left Seungmin’s body when he saw the man’s face. He didn’t know why he trusted him. His trust was just assuming that the guy wouldn’t beat him up, but that was something. Maybe that was because Minho was the one who showed Seungmin at least some amount of humanity, right after he starved for days and then got tortured by Hwang. 

The other possibility would be a belief that Minho wasn’t very smart, so not that dangerous. With all the smiles, and something that could be not caring about his surroundings, consequences of his actions and his general life situation, you could think it was the truth. Except… it wasn’t.

Seungmin didn’t let Minho fool him. He didn’t actually think Minho was trying to do that, it was just his weird way of being. He could sense the intellect hidden behind his silly smiles and questionable actions. Minho was smart, and it was making the whole situation of Seungmin’s trust even more alarming. 

Seungmin would give his precious mouldy food away to know how Minho ended up as a witches’ helper. 

“Hello?” Minho’s voice finally got to him. Seungmin couldn’t believe that he waited so long to talk to Minho and when he finally got the occasion, he zoned out right after the man started talking.   
  


His ability to focus was even worse than usual. The time spent there was making weaker in every way.

_Well, maybe I’ll actually get sick and die before Hwang gets to kill me._

Minho snapped his fingers in front of Seungmin’s face.

“You with me?” He demanded an answer.

“No.” Seungmin deadpanned.

For a second Minho’s smile faded. That was the moment when Seungmin realised what he just did. Fuck. Was his case absolutely lost? 

He didn’t have much time to think about it ‘cause the next thing that Minho did was to laugh. He didn’t seem to be angry at all, Seungmin’s boldness was somehow funny to him. 

That was… unusual.

“So anyway-” Minho continued his story not caring that Seungmin didn’t even hear the first part. He was talking and talking about some Traitor who fucked up and basically got a beating from witches in a way in which a teenager tells newest gossips to their best friend. 

Seungmin tried to focus, but nothing of this was useful or even interesting to him. Minho probably knew that, but as long as he found it interesting to himself, he didn’t really care. 

He tried to interject anything, find a way to ask a question, but there was no way that Minho would let him. And then it got to him... Minho knew what he wanted to do. He knew that Seungmin wanted to talk to him only to find a way to get out of there. And if he knew, that meant he won’t tell him anything that he could use. All Minho wanted to do there was to talk. 

After the realisation of that, Seungmin gave up completely. Minho was too good to be tricked, and if he wanted to tell him anything, he would probably do it himself. The only thing he could do now was to get into the gossips and deal with them. It was always better to have Minho on his side anyway. 

  
  


***

  
  


Minho kept visiting him to joke around for the next three days. When he gave it a try, Seungmin even found talks with him entertaining. If he didn’t know he was a murderer, he would never guess.

Seungmin got a cough caused but the horrible conditions and the humidity around him. Minho didn’t react when he first heard it, but the next day he gave him some herbal medicine that he stole from the witches. He didn’t say a word while giving it to Seungmin, but his uncle’s lessons made him recognise the mixture right away. Seungmin was shocked that Minho actually cared. 

After seeing Seungmin’s reaction, he said something about Hwang being sad if his toy died without his help, but Seungmin knew it was bullshit. Minho didn’t care about Hwang being sad, he genuinely liked the visits for some reason and didn’t want them to end too soon. This made Seungmin hopeful. 

Minho already had fed him that day, but he wasn’t surprised when he heard the door being opened again. Not the first time when Minho visited him twice. 

The door stood opened, and instantly Seungmin felt horrified. 

Hwang. 

Lately, Seungmin has been so focused on getting Minho’s sympathy that he forgot that the risk of Hwang coming back was actually real. And there he was standing, looking as dark as always, his face definitely not amused.

He closed the door and left the torch in the holder. For some time he was just standing there and looking at Seungmin, once again analysing his face. 

Seungmin hoped he didn’t look as terrified as he actually felt. 

“What was your dragon’s name?” He finally spoke. The question hurt Seungmin more than any of the punches that he got from Hwang the last time. 

He knew who Seungmin was, then he knew that his dragon was dead. He probably thought that Seungmin was dead as well, just like most of the people that had ever heard about him did. But not all of them knew what his dragon’s name was. 

He wanted to make sure that Seungmin didn’t lie to him. And Seungmin had no idea what it meant for him. 

“You either talk or make it difficult for both of us. And you already know how it feels.”

Seungmin knew, of course, but he had no idea which outcome was worse for him. Before he had the chance to decide, he saw Hwang take out a dagger from the sheath that he had attached to the belt on the back of his trousers. Now his emotions were visible in a hundred percent, he was sure of that. He tried to move back, but the wall was blocking him. He had no strength to fight. 

Hwang grabbed his hand and lifted the sleeve of his jacket. Then, he cut the material that was covering Seungmin’s wrist. He unwrapped it harshly, and Seungmin’s mark got exposed to him in its full glory. It felt somehow pleasant when Hwang touched it. It reminded Seungmin of the time when he was with Malgora. It was sickening. 

He was looking at the two little dragons on Seungmin’s skin for a while, right before he started moving the dagger on them as if he was trying to scrape them off. Seungmin winced when the blade cut his skin, and the silver drops started dripping on the floor. 

“See…” Seungmin said bitterly with clenched teeth. “... I am a Hunter. Do you think I could fake the colour of my blood too? 

Hwang didn’t react. 

“The name.” He said again. 

He couldn’t fake his blood, but he could fake his mark, Seungmin realised. He knew his mark’s shape. 

“Malgora,” Seungmin said. Hiding leads to nothing. Maybe cooperating could lead him at least to something. Whatever it was. 

“How did she die?” Hwang continued. 

“Fuck you.” And that was it for cooperating. Seungmin’s black and blue face hurt more when he was putting more emotions into words that he was saying.

Hwang remained impassive. 

“How did she die?” He repeated as calmly as before. 

Seungmin couldn’t take another beating, he knew that. He also knew he will get it if he doesn't answer his questions. He made himself a silent promise to make Hwang end him when he gets the occasion, but Hwang knowing details about his life changed the whole situation. He was there to get information. For some reason, he needed Seungmin, not just a random Hunter, and he was motivated to use him in any purpose that he had planned. 

He won’t let Seungmin provoke him until he gets what he needs. 

Seungmin could read it in his calmness. He wasn’t an easy guy to play with, just as Minho. 

Seungmin gulped. When he opened his mouth, his voice was weak and hoarse. 

“Witches’ trap” He was looking at Hwang intensively, but not in the same way that he did. Seungmin’s eyes were anxious.

“How many?” Same monotonous tone. 

“Huh?”

“How many witches?”

“Four.” 

Hwang tilted his head. His black hair moved to the side and exposed his forehead. Seungmin noticed that his eyes were big. If he didn’t know the person those eyes were attached to, he would maybe think of them as sort of pretty. 

_At least one thing went right in the creation of this disgusting creature._

Now those eyes were saying ‘rethink’.

“Five. And the Mother.”

Hwang nodded delicately deep in thought. For some time, only silence accompanied them when he was probably making the final decision of whether to believe him or not. At least this was what Seungmin thought he was doing. Until his boot once again moved to Seungmin, this time landing on his damaged ankle.

Seungmin’s scream pierced the air. 

He could feel his eyes tearing up. Hwang probably didn’t use his full strength, but for Seungmin it was a nightmare anyway. And that was the point. When the first tear rolled up his cheek, and his vision became clear, he saw the corner of Hwang’s mouth moving up in a frightening smirk. 

He knew. He knew the details of the story that Seungmin had told only three people in his life. 

  
  


***

  
  


In this way, Seungmin came back to the beginning. His whole body was in pain, and he couldn’t stand up again. His first trial didn’t work out, he fell down right away. He was so weak. 

Not only his ankle experienced a big crisis once again, but the time spent without fresh air, fresh clothes and with non-existent hygiene, made Seungmin way too close to death. Seungmin thought he was going to rot to death. 

Thanks to the herbs he got from Minho his cough got a little better but didn’t heal completely. Not to mention him feeling sick all the time. 

He didn’t try to fight, not a single time since he got there. His mind gave up a long time ago, but this time his body was utterly useless too.

He tried to stand up once again, and this time he succeeded. He balanced himself by leaning mostly on his healthy leg. He had no courage to take a step. 

Then he heard the door. He wasn’t able to sit down quickly if it wasn’t just falling down, so he just stayed in place. When he saw his guest, he sighed with relief. 

Minho’s face was serious, he would say. No smile, not a single emotion.

_He knows something._

When he saw Seungmin on his legs, he was taken aback. Every time he visited Seungmin was sitting on the floor, leaning on the wall. He must have looked so pitiable in Minho’s eyes. 

Minho closed the door and left the torch in the holder. He turned back to Seungmin.

“Take a step.” He said.

This was an unexpected request. You wouldn’t think how hard it actually was to do it. Seungmin shook his head, mouthing a little “no”. His eyes were filled with a scare. 

Minho put a bag he had with him on the floor and came closer. 

“C’mon.” He said, giving him his hand. 

Seungmin hesitated before grabbing it and taking the other hand off the wall. Slowly he extended his injured leg and tried to stand on it but the pain was too much. He screamed right before falling down. Minho caught him halfway to the ground.

“Okay, I got you.” He said. “There, sit down.” He helped Seungmin put his body on the ground safely. Seungmin leaned on the wall, so tired after so little action. Minho was looking at him displeased. 

Then he remembered about the bag and handed it to Seungmin. It was quite early if Seungmin’s sense of time was correct, so he was ready to put it aside to save the food for later. Minho stopped him with his hand. 

“No, eat now.” 

Seungmin couldn’t understand his intention, but he decided to obey. When he opened the bag, he got shocked again. The food was fresh. He looked at Minho quizzically. 

Minho laughed, and this was the only thing that felt familiar in this visit. 

“The witches will finally notice something’s wrong and I’ll get my ass whooped.” Minho crouched next to him, taking some mixture out of his pocket. 

“Now, where does it hurt?” He asked.

Confused Seungmin slowly pointed to his ankle. 

“My face too.” He said shyly after. His face actually looked a little better, but it still hurt a lot. 

“Your face will be fine, you crybaby.” Minho laughed and cut his trousers slightly to see his ankle. Then he opened the small bottle and started spreading the mixture on it. 

“Minho…” Seungmin said quietly, and Minho looked up surprised by Seungmin using his name. “He wants to set me free?” 

Minho’s smile looked quite sympathetic as if he was almost sorry to extinguish the hope which appeared in his eyes. 

“He said you don’t have much time left. And he wants you to get stronger first.” 

  
  


***

  
  


Minho came back a little later to give him another dose of food. Seungmin was lying on the floor staring at one point on the wall, refusing to even look at him. Sulking couldn’t help him in any way, he knew that but at this point, nothing actually could, so he could do just that as well. 

Minho put another bag next to him. He noticed that the one which he had brought before remained untouched. 

“You have to eat,” Minho said. 

“Don’t act like you care.” Seungmin murmured giving the whole ‘friendship with a murderer’ thing up. 

“I don’t,” Minho answered coldly. “But if you die before you should, I won’t succeed and I quite like succeeding. So eat.” With that, he left.

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin started eating again the next day. He was stupid for thinking that Hwang saw him as useful. He was a Traitor. A psychopath to be added. He knew him, yes, but he wouldn’t need him in any way. 

Hwang knew who he was, so he probably heard about his accomplishments in killing witches, and he hated him. He was there feeding him to keep him alive, so he could torture him longer, so he could enjoy his suffering more. How had he known all the details about Seungmin? He had no idea. 

Seungmin hoped it had nothing to do with his uncle. He hoped, he just hoped that Hwang didn’t get to him. Until now, he wouldn’t even let this idea slide into his brain. He couldn’t imagine the old man getting tortured because of him, he couldn’t imagine Hwang even getting close to him. 

He hadn’t felt like such a burden his whole life. 

***

  
  


Three more days passed until Seungmin was able to walk. Minho was helping him every day, holding him when he was taking steps, catching him when he fell. He was surprisingly gentle, almost caring. If Seungmin didn’t know who he was, he’d get fooled. 

He couldn’t guess if Minho was pleased with his attempts. He was still limping, but it wasn’t much more clumsy than usual. But Minho had never seen him walk before, he probably had no idea about his standard state. 

Seungmin could try to fool him and play much more weak than he actually was, but he decided not to prolong his sufferings. He had had enough. 

“Good,” said Minho and helped him sit down. This time he didn’t leave right away but stayed to look at him for a few more seconds.

“You know…” he started. “You don’t have to worry.” His voice sounded somehow delicate. 

Seungmin didn’t look up at him at first. He felt bitter. 

“At first it’s hard, but after some time your brain just shuts.” He continued. “It’ll be over quickly.”

Seungmin looked at him with clenched teeth. From his face, you could sense anger mixed with resignation. His black and blue face now turned a bit yellow with the traces left by Hwang slowly getting off.

Minho laughed silently, making a sound that actually sounded more like ‘hm’ than actual laughter. He had the audacity to ruffle Seungmin’s dirty hair. 

And that was his last visit. 

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin didn’t know when he had fallen asleep, but he definitely remembered the moment he got woken up. Even though the door got unlocked quietly, Seungmin opened his eyes instantly and lifted his head to see the intruder. 

Hwang came in, and as always he set the torch in the torch holder. Seungmin didn’t know why, but he perceived his face as a kind of worried and kind of disturbed. He noticed a backpack on his shoulder only when he tossed it to the ground. 

Seungmin gave a thought to the backpack, wondering what could be inside. Knives? More daggers? Something else to ‘play’ with him? He’ll probably get the answer very soon. 

Hwang came closer, pulling a piece of material out from his back pocket. Seungmin didn’t fight when he crouched next to him and used it to gag him. He noticed that skin on one of his palms was scratched and bleeding slightly. It was fresh, as he could deduce from the dirt still covering the wound. His blood was silver. 

Then he stood up and pulled Seungmin with him. He tied his hands with another piece of material which was dirty and basically looked like he pulled it out of his ass. Seungmin wrinkled his nose looking at it, as he wasn’t a whole bag of dirt himself now. 

Hwang made a step towards the door holding Seungmin’s tied hands, but stopped right away and turned around to face him again. 

“Seungmin.” Seungmin’s eyes grew a little bigger when he heard his name coming from the mouth of his oppressor. “Whatever I did to you, keep it in mind. But whatever I didn’t do, remember it as well.” 

Seungmin frowned. He had no idea what Hwang meant. Did he want Seungmin to see him as even more evil than he actually was? He didn’t think it was actually possible. 

“If anyone notices us, we’re both dead. But don’t seek revenge. I still stand a chance, you don’t.”

Seungmin still couldn’t understand, he couldn’t find a relation between the first thing he had said and what he stated just now. What was that he didn’t do? He didn’t give him mercy? He wanted to give him the taste of how it’ll feel like if they get caught at whatever Hwang had planned? Luckily Hwang could read him better than he was able to read Hwang. 

“I’ve never lied to you. You have to trust that I’m not doing it now.” His eyes went down from meeting Seungmin’s gaze to somewhere near his chin probably and back again. The tone from their first meeting, quiet and demanding, was back. “Do what I say.” 

With that, he took him out of his cell, putting the backpack back on his shoulder. 

Seungmin had never seen the corridor before. It wasn’t much different from his cell, except it wasn’t as dark and the air wasn’t as stinky. He was happy that Hwang didn’t come to him at daytime, cause the light would probably burn his eyes. 

He tried not to think about his destiny. Hwang’s actions made him believe that something was not right. From what Minho had said he was sure that Hwang was finally going to torture him to death. This was not how he imagined things go. 

Hwang was leading him down the corridor, not letting go of his hands. He was making quiet steps. He left the torch in Seungmin’s cell so the road must have been way harder than it was to Seungmin, as Hwang wasn’t as used to the darkness as Seungmin was. 

When they reached the corridor bend, he stopped to check the area. Seungmin patiently waited for him to make sure if the way was safe. He wouldn’t risk exposing Hwang as long as he was sure he had a chance to escape. 

The next part was crossed by them very fastly, Hwang was setting the pace, making them look obviously guilty of doing whatever. He leaned out to the next bend way too quickly, immediately retreating and pushing Seungmin back as well. Seungmin barely held back the gasp caused by his back hitting the wall. To be fair, the gag helped him with this one. 

Seungmin saw a shadow sliding on the wall. The witch was crawling from the right side of the corridor, luckily to the opposite direction to theirs. Unluckily; there was no place for them to hide. All they could do is to stick to the wall and hope she won’t notice. Seungmin thought about screaming, actually, about making stifled sounds. That would be the most he was able to do, and enough to get exposed. At the second thought, this idea was pretty dumb. Even though the witch looked pitiful, you shouldn’t be fooled. This only meant she had lived hundreds of years, she was powerful, and she was able to destroy their pathetic asses in a second. Actually, it would take a little longer since she would have to recognise whatever sin Hwang was carrying first. 

She was walking slowly, and Seungmin found it hard to breathe. Turning her head would be enough to notice them hiding in the corridor’s bend, and the fact that she just slowed down at the point where they were actually visible wasn’t helping him calm down. Seungmin closed his eyes. A thought crossed his mind; maybe dying out of witch’s hand would be easier than dying killed by Hwang? 

_Don’t be stupid, Seungmin. She wouldn’t make it any easier._

The weirdest part was that this time, with Hwang, he actually felt a trace of hope. He didn’t know what he wanted to do with him, but if he wished to kill him now, would the witches try to stop him? Obviously, they wouldn’t mind. So why would he hide them? Why was he afraid of the ones he worked for? 

Pulling his tied hands made him come back to reality. He opened his eyes and realised that the witch was gone. Hwang was leading him down the corridor again, this time, at the end of it he saw a door. Was it the room he usually takes his victims to? What was the thing that made him a criminal in the criminals’ world and was somehow related to Seungmin dying tonight? Whatever it was, Seungmin was about to learn about it. 

Hwang reached the handle before Seungmin realised those doors had no latch. This would be the first hint. The one that Seungmin actually took was the fresh air hitting his face. It made him close his eyes for a second blinded by the light, even though it was nighttime. When he opened them again, he felt almost nostalgic. He saw stars shining. He heard bugs and frogs making sounds in the silence of the night. 

Hwang didn’t give him time to marvel at the beauty of the world. He pulled left and then changed direction again, hiding in the shadow of the building and heading to the back of it. Seungmin almost forgot to take a look at the type of building those witches occupied. He had met witches for multiple occasions in his life but never had he experienced looking at the base of witches working with Traitors. Traitors were not something Seungmin liked to struggle with back in his times. He found them absolutely disgusting and didn’t want to have anything in common with them even if it was for him to fight them. They were crazy and unpredictable. 

Standard witches usually chose for the base some caves or abandoned buildings, ruins to be fair. What was surrounding Seungmin, was something built or at least renewed for them. Seungmin was expecting something looking like a small castle, but the building he had spent so many days in actually looked like huge stone shed. There were multiple similar sheds around him, the base was probably taking large area. 

At the back of the said building, there was an old stable, probably for the use of the Red-Blooded. Hwang approached it and opened the gate, which greeted him with a loud creak. Seungmin saw over a dozen of horses. 

_Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no._

Not sensing Seungmin’s emotions Hwang approached one of the horses, a black stallion, probably the most massive beast out there. 

_You gotta be kidding me._

The horse was already loaded with some stuff that Hwang had prepared for the journey, wherever he was taking him. 

_You specifically chose this fucker before, huh? I almost forgot you were a torturer._

The most unexpected thing in all this was the moment when Hwang lifted him in the air. He fucking lifted him in the air like he weighed nothing and put him on the said horse-beast. Seungmin’s eyes grew three times bigger, and he had no idea if it was for Hwang or for the fact that his ass touched a horse’s back for the first time in his life. He tried to give Hwang a meaningful scream, but the gag stopped him. He looked at Hwang in hope, after making the pitiful sound but the man looked confused, he was frowning like he was trying to say ‘the fuck are you doing?’ without words. Of course, he ignored him and got on the animal right behind him. His body was way too close for Seungmin’s liking but as the horse moved he realised that without Hwang he’d immediately fall off. Against himself, he leaned even closer to him, everything just to keep himself a little safer on the stallion. Hwang froze for a second, surprised by Seungmin’s action. Then he reached ahead to grab the reins, bending Seungmin a little with his body. 

_God, I really hate horses._

Without any warning, at least in Seungmin’s opinion, the horse started running forward. He passed the stable’s gate and the buildings, heading right into the darkness of the surrounding forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys took the "enemies" part in "enemies to lovers" seriously hdgfjsh
> 
> last time I forgot to mention, that besides the skz boys every character is 100% fictional, even if there's an idol or anyone with the same name this is just a coincidence~!
> 
> I'll be back with another chapter in a week, stay safe everyone!


	3. Chapter 3

After some time, the ride wasn’t even that scary. His hands were still tied up so he couldn’t hold onto anything, he tried to grab the horse’s mane, but it was yet another illusion of safety. He didn’t feel in danger, at that moment at least. It was pretty ironic how Hwang was the person who was making him overcome his fear. Leaning in his arms, uncomfortably comfortable, he knew he won’t fall. He even dozed off for some time. Was the night coming to an end, or did it still seem so bright only in his eyes?

Seungmin wasn’t the one to get fooled by an illusion though. He knew that even if he felt relatively safe now, Hwang still was the biggest threat to him. He remembered what he did to him, he will never forget.

His thoughts were interrupted by the said devil harshly stopping the horse. Seungmin fell back a little, which caused him to touch Hwang’s body with his back a bit more intensively for a few seconds and made him feel a little sicker. 

He wondered why he decided to stop now, especially that they still basically were in the forest. No buildings, no traces of people’s presence, what they saw ahead was just a glade and more trees behind it. Did he choose this place for an execution? This was how he liked it? Did it give his previous victims a bit of hope for being set free before they met their death, feeling cheated?

Hwang got off the horse, and Seungmin was sure that he will leave him there to suffer trying to get off himself, but once again Hwang surprised him. He grabbed his sides, helping him come down safely. 

_I wish you didn’t touch me._

He knew that the contact they made so far was in his favour, but he couldn’t help but feel bitter about it. He watched Hwang tying the reins to the near tree and waited patiently. Thought of running away appeared in his head only to become wiped out by the vision of Hwang chasing him on the stallion and Seungmin dying under its hooves. He even smirked imagining himself hobbling through the forest. 

_God, you truly killed my spirit._

Hwang turned to him reaching with his hand to the back of his trousers, which Seungmin already knew as putting out of his dagger. 

_Here we go._

Then he grabbed his hands and cut the material that was tying them. Some weird sparks were coming through Seungmin’s body when he was touching his skin. 

_What the fuck._

He already knew this feeling, but it wasn’t in the right place. Hwang wasn’t a dragon. He was an asshole. 

Seungmin decided not to waste too many thoughts on this. He got rid of the material and looked at his wrists which got red and scratched. He fought the desire to wrap it up around his mark. It was weird, having it exposed but he felt it didn’t matter this much now. Even though it didn’t feel right as well. 

_This person is dead._

He wanted to get rid of the gag that he thought would finally choke him, but Hwang reached it first. Seungmin looked aside when he got closer to grab the bunch that was on the back of his head. 

“I’m not setting you free.” He suddenly spoke. 

Was Seungmin supposed to actually think that?

Hwang opened his mouth to speak again, but he didn’t get any word out ‘cause at that moment they felt a massive blow of the air and heard a sound which was somehow so familiar to Seungmin’s ears yet felt so different; sound of the dragon landing on the ground. Once again, Seungmin felt the pain of his mark, it made him scream quietly, but he managed to stay on his feet. 

_This is NOT right._

Hwang ignored his reaction too focused on his beast. He quickly approached it with a sincere smile. Something that Seungmin didn’t expect to ever see on his face. 

The dragon was actually one of the biggest creatures Seungmin had ever seen. It must’ve been very old, he would date him as at least three hundred years, but he wasn’t sure. Its scales were black, and that would explain Hwang’s choices in fashion. God, that was one scary motherfucker. 

He saw Hwang hugging the dragon the way he used to do to Malgora, and again it made him feel bad. The pain of the mark was almost gone, but he was still holding his wrist, waiting for Hwang to stop mumbling some sweet words to the beast, and come back to finish what he started.

“This is Nocturne.” He said when he was finally back. Seungmin snorted. 

“That’s a stupid name for a dragon,” Seungmin answered Hwang’s confused face, which appeared right after his reaction. It wasn’t. It wasn’t a stupid name. But you know, fuck Hwang.

Hwang decided to let this one slide, even though he didn’t look happy about this remark. 

“Have you ever slept in the forest?” He asked then. 

“Yeah?” Seungmin gave up trying to figure out what was going on. 

“Have some sleep then. We’re already quite far away, so we’re relatively safe for now. I’ll keep the watch for some time.” 

He tried to turn around probably to set some fire, making himself at home and other shit, but Seungmin stopped him grabbing the sleeve of his jacket and pinching his skin while doing so. He hoped it hurt. 

Hwang stared at Seungmin’s hand for a while somehow offended by this gesture, then he looked Seungmin in the eyes, his dark expression back on its place. 

“What do you want from me?” For once, Seungmin didn’t sound weak. He sounded demanding. He couldn’t forge Hwang’s tone, but he hoped to be treated seriously. 

Hwang threw Seungmin’s hand off him, but it wasn’t aggressive or showing off. He looked aside thinking, finding the words or thinking of the way they should be said. Then he looked him in the eyes again, again confident and ruthless.

“I’m taking you somewhere to help me. And if you think of running away or doing something stupid, don’t. Nocturne will be around all the time, and I think you well know how dragon’s senses work.” 

He didn’t hesitate to set the rules. The weak side of Seungmin wanted to instantly obey, but the sulky side of him couldn’t let it happen so easily. He tried to take it calmly though. Sometimes he was forgetting that he was talking to a psychopath. Lately, it had become his reality. 

“What do you need me for?” Please, don’t let it be something weird. 

“I’m not telling you.” 

“Where are you taking me?” Don’t let it be weird. 

“I’m not telling you this either.” 

“Well, fuck you then!” This guy was ridiculous. Seungmin felt rage growing inside of him. The hatred he felt for Hwang was almost suffocating. “You expect me to agree to help you do whatever and wherever? You’re not getting it. You’re not my friend, you fucking tortured me, burned my village, probably killed the only family I had… Fuck you! Fuck you, Hwang!” He probably looked like a teenager yelling at his parents for not letting them go out with friends. He didn’t care. Honestly, he didn’t give a fuck. 

Much to his annoyance, Hwang remained unbothered. His expression didn’t change, not even a little bit. Seungmin wished he was brave enough to punch his fucking face.

“I don’t expect you to agree to anything.” He started calmly. It was there again, quiet voice. “I expect you to do what I tell you. I expect you to be good.” 

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin wished Hwang had never appeared in his life. He wished they never met, never crossed their ways. But there he was forced to spend with him God knows how long. They spent another few hours on a journey, and now they were strolling down the forest. Hwang was leading the horse by its reins and Seungmin was tramping behind him, whole this time refusing to talk to him. Even when the devil was trying to make some conversation, Seungmin was just looking away. Hwang must have found it fair at some point, cause he stopped after a while. Last few hours had been silent. He didn’t say a thing, except explaining that he would lead them to a stream so the horse could drink and they could take proper rest.

On the way, he took out two apples from one of the bags that the horse carried and gave one to Seungmin without a word. The bag wasn’t big, so Seungmin wondered what will they do when there’s no more food. His hesitation to take the apple lasted only a second. Obviously, he needed to eat and obviously, he had no choice than to obey Hwang, so he did both these things. He knew he had no chances, at least not till Nocturne was around, not till they get to the place and Seungmin finally knows what was going on. 

Nocturne. 

“Why do we ride the horse if you have a dragon?” Seungmin’s voice sounded a little raspy when he finally spoke. 

Hwang didn’t answer. He kept walking looking ahead and probably waiting for the question to just pass. 

“I assume it’s somewhere far away, and one horse for two people? Come on, it will take ages at this pace.” Hwang kept silent.

_Okay, who’s the stubborn bitch now._

Seungmin didn’t give up. 

“It would take probably no more than a day on a dragon, you know that.” He continued, and Hwang finally broke his silent treatment. 

“You’re not riding my dragon.” He said firmly, as it would be just that. His words caused quite an old memory once again echo in Seungmin’s head. 

You will never ride a dragon again. 

Seungmin shook his head to get rid of it. It wasn’t important now. 

“You can’t be this haughty,” Seungmin answered, wondering what he was hiding. He had seen Nocturne once, but he had never tried to approach him. He knew he was close, he could feel it. Yet, he wasn't able to spot him. Why couldn’t he be ridden?

“Maybe I am.” Hwang tried to cut the conversation. 

_That’s not it._

Seungmin decided to stop, though. He will find it out himself. 

He felt a small wave of happiness when he finally saw the stream. It was way bigger than he imagined. He gave a thought to the fact that Hwang knew the forest quite well, but he wasn’t impressed by it. That’s a useless ability when you have a dragon. 

He watched Hwang letting the horse drink before the man kneeled next to the water and started drinking himself. Seungmin was becoming impatient.

_Ahh, fuck it._

With this thought, he started undressing. He shoved his jacket to the ground and started unbuttoning his shirt hurriedly. He was stinky for way too long. 

“When you turn right there-” Hwang turned around to look at him when he was speaking but immediately turned away again abashed by Seungmin’s actions. Seungmin rose his eyebrow. Had he never see someone undressing or what? “When you turn right there you can find a small cave, I thought it would be a good place to spend the night.” Seungmin - without trousers now - was barely listening to him, too excited of the thought of taking a bath in the stream. “Take the horse and join me when you finish… what you’re doing.” Hwang finally finished and moved to the said direction, insisting on not looking at Seungmin on the way. 

Seungmin shrugged him off and rushed to the stream. The water was way too cold, but he didn’t care. After all this time it felt like a blessing anyway. He washed his body and his hair wishing it won’t make him actually sick.

  
  


***

  
  


After finding the right place for the horse-beast and taking all the things that were still loaded on it, he entered the cave. He noticed then that the only thing that Hwang took with him while leaving the stream was the backpack that he saw at the very beginning.

_What are you hiding inside?_

Hwang looked up and gave him a little smile which faded right away, probably after he remembered they weren’t friends or even colleagues.

“You found it.” It sounded almost proud.

Seungmin didn’t answer but tossed at him one of the two blankets that he found among the baggage. Beside it, there was only a bag with food and a glass bottle filled with water. Of course, Seungmin checked everything cautiously. The other bag was only the one carried by Hwang, and it made Seungmin even more curious.

He noticed that Hwang made a small bonfire only when he lied next to it. He used the backpack as a pillow.

_You’re protecting it._

“Take something from the bag now, and tomorrow I will find proper food.” 

“Fuck you.” Said Seungmin, just for the sake of principle and settled close to the bonfire to get warm and dry his hair after the bath. 

Hwang as always didn’t bother getting mad at him, just turned away and closed his eyes. Seungmin was getting more and more annoyed by the fact that he wasn’t acting the way he expected him to. He expected him to get mad at all his little disobediences and harsh remarks. He expected Hwang to yell at him, to beat him up, to torment him until he knows his place. None of this happened so far, and it was making Seungmin frustrated. Hwang acted like he knew he deserved being treated like this, and this was a thought that Seungmin refused to accept. Monsters don’t know they’re monsters. 

But maybe, just maybe… this one knew. 

  
  


***

  
  


Morning somehow felt colder than the night. Seungmin woke up slowly, shivering, and the first thing he noticed was that that the fire was gone. He tried to wrap himself in the blanket a little more tightly and find the lost warmth again. The second thing he noticed was that Hwang was gone too. Was he watching over the fire through the night?

Seungmin barely lifted his body to sit up when the devil entered the cave looking proud of himself. He was carrying something, but Seungmin’s eyes didn’t get used to being awake yet. Hwang quickly gave him a chance to have a better look when he tossed one of the things at Seungmin. Luckily, he was fast enough to move aside when it landed next to him. He felt a few drops of blood hitting his face. 

The thing was a partridge, as Seungmin was only guessing. It was burned almost to ashes, partly dripping blood and generally looking like a disaster. Hwang was still holding one, looking all happy about it. 

Seungmin looked at him absolutely disgusted. 

“I told you I’ll find some food!” He said utterly misinterpreting Seungmin’s reaction.

“Are you fucking insane?” Seungmin couldn’t believe it. They still could surprise him even though so many days had passed since he entered the sick world.

Hwang’s smile faded a bit. 

“You’re Silver-Blooded! If a dragon can eat something, you can eat it too, you should know that.”

“Doesn’t mean I _should_ eat it!”

Hwang just shrugged and sat back on his spot from the night with his prey in his hands. Seungmin crossed his supposed breakfast and left the place pissed. 

After a few meters, he stopped. 

Hwang didn’t go after him. He didn’t show the slightest concern about them being apart, not even once, he was so sure he’ll be right back, that Seungmin will just listen to his demands. 

The most annoying thing was that he was right. 

Okay, focus. Seungmin looked around analysing the forest. He immediately recognised the type of every tree, every plant he saw. He looked above to upper branches. He saw few mistletoes and tried to read the scheme in which they took over the trees. Adding everything that he learned about this part of the forest, he knew what to do. 

Maybe he was easy to get lost. It was taking a lot of time to him to learn the way, he was usually surviving only with the forest showing him basic directions. But he was fucking good at understanding the forest’s language. He knew what it needed, he knew how it worked. Botany was his thing now, and magic was inside of him, even if he thought it shouldn’t be there at all.

He turned left and then glued his eyes to the ground following the heather. He didn’t have to go far for the surroundings to get drier and less dense. 

And there it was. He crouched to the small plant, its thorny creepers were covered in delicate pink flowers. Seungmin almost felt bad for getting it out of the ground. He took the thick white root and separated it from the creepers. He picked up a few more before heading back. 

_See, you fucker. This is how much it took._

He went to the stream again to wash them. Being alive required way too many steps. On his way back, he looked at the horse in front of the cave. What do horses eat? Grass? He threw one of the roots, so it landed near the horse’s head. It’s not like he’d go near the creature without an absolute necessity. Forget about it. 

He entered the cave and wondered if throwing one directly at Hwang’s face is worth dying for. Tempting. But no, Seungmin. No. 

The partridges were gone, but Seungmin didn’t want to know if Hwang went to meet his dragon to get rid of them or he just ate them like a savage he is. 

Hwang caught the root in the air. 

“Am I supposed to eat raw parsley root?” He sounded somehow indignant by a meal which was not bloody.

_It’s not-_

“It can make you feel full for a whole day. Shut up and eat.” Seungmin said and put the rest in the bag with food. 

Hwang shrugged and tried to bite it. He looked like a fox trying to eat a hedgehog.

“It stinks!” He whined again. 

“You stink.” Seungmin deadpanned. 

“Look who’s saying it.” He said, looking up at Seungmin. 

“Look whose fault was that!” Seungmin was truly annoyed and to make matters worse, this bitch laughed like they were a couple of friends teasing each other.

He snorted in disbelief and turned around to take the things that needed to be loaded on the stallion. He stormed out of the cave and made himself approach him to put it on him. He heard Hwang tramping behind him probably to look at what he was doing. 

_Okay Seungmin, you can do it._

It took his whole willpower to try to get on the horse. And well, he succeeded, maybe it was a little clumsy, but he was sitting on the horse. What he didn’t think of is that if he gets on with this foot from this side- 

He heard Hwang’s loud laugh coming from the side. 

“Fuck you!” Seungmin screamed at him once again, all courageous, until the horse moved slightly and he lost the balance and fell, his face hitting the croup of the horse. Laugh again. 

Seungmin lifted himself and tried not to panic at all the horse’s little movements. Getting off will be even harder. 

Hwang came closer and offered his hand, but Seungmin refused to even look at it. He moved his leg over the horse quickly, too quickly. He almost screamed, feeling himself fall, but Hwang was there to catch him. The brush of their skin caused another sparkle, and Seungmin’s anger reached a critical point. He pushed him away.

“Stop doing this!” He yelled. “Just stop!” 

“Doing… what?” Hwang’s voice was quiet when he answered. His smile faded, and he looked concerned, but Seungmin didn’t believe he actually cared. 

“This! Those sparkles, this stupid feeling, I won’t fall for this!” Tears of anger appeared in his eyes, but he managed to stop them. “You’re not a fucking dragon!”

Hwang’s eyes grew a little bigger, and he didn’t say anything for a few long seconds. He was looking at Seungmin like he just destroyed his whole worldview.

“I thought it was you…” He whispered. 

_What…_

“I… Why would I…” 

“I don’t know! But you know some magic, right? It must be you!” 

How did he know about him making pots? Well, it didn’t matter for this moment. Seungmin met the reality in which a psychopath knowing everything about him was his smallest problem. He had no idea what was happening, but he didn’t like it at all. He buried his head in his hands, pulling his own hair and breathing harshly. Hwang caught his arms once again, this time careful not to touch his skin. 

“Hey, calm down. Calm down.” His voice sounded comforting. It wasn’t working anyway. “I’m not doing this, I swear.” Seungmin believed him for some reason, but it was even scarier. He was driving him crazy. “But we will figure out what it is, okay? Just breathe now. Just breathe.”

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin kept quiet on the way again, but this time it wasn’t sulking. He was emotionally exhausted, so Hwang didn’t try to bother him. He understood Seungmin’s feelings and gave him space. This time Seungmin sincerely appreciated it. 

Hwang wasn’t able to find any shelter in the area that they reached, so they settled for sleeping in the forest. The place to land for Nocturne was way smaller than the first glade. Hwang was happy that they actually found something since the forest in this area tends to be dense. The dragon knocked down a few trees while settling on the ground. 

That night the beast wasn't that far from them. Even though Hwang insisted on keeping the distance between them and Nocturne, he was way too close. He was sleeping, and Seungmin could hear his mighty breaths.

Opposite to the dragon Seungmin couldn’t sleep. He tried to focus on the sound of the air going in and out Nocturne’s lungs, but it didn't help him rest at all. He kept staring at the bonfire which Hwang made before going to sleep. He felt the heat on his face, and he felt calm. There was nothing as comforting as watching the fire, feeling it on your skin and nothing as thrilling as feeling the air hitting your face. Seungmin had to settle for just one of those feelings.

His eyes wandered to Hwang’s face. He was sleeping on the other side of the bonfire, looking calm and somehow innocent. That was a contrasting thought, but for some reason, it fitted. The light was dancing on his face, and for the first time, Seungmin noticed that his face was really pretty. His black hair, way too long in Seungmin’s opinion, was covering his forehead messily, somehow soft, somehow delicate. 

It didn’t make him any less disgusting in Seungmin’s eyes, but it was something. Seeing Hwang asleep, noticing his delicate features, made Seungmin realise he was human. It made Seungmin accept that he could have some emotions, some reasons. He could have some story. They say all monsters are human, and Hwang was a human being. 

Deeply, deeply asleep human being. 

Seungmin lifted his body slowly, careful not to make any noise. Hwang didn’t react at his movements, and luckily he didn’t react when some branch cracked under his foot. The way through the part of the forest that was separating them from Nocturne was way harder, as the light from the bonfire couldn’t reach it. Seungmin kept stumbling, and branches were hitting his face, but he managed to stay relatively quiet. Reaching the last trees in front of the beast Seungmin hesitated to come closer. What would be Nocturne’s reaction if he sees Seungmin coming near him? How did the dragon perceive Seungmin’s relation with his rider? Seungmin sighed realising that since he ‘met’ Nocturne, he was the one being aggressive towards Hwang, and all Hwang did was trying to be nice. Slick asshole. 

Seungmin might be scared of horses, but he wasn’t the one to be scared of dragons. He had met a fair number of dragons in his life, and he never hesitated to come close to a dragon. Even when the beast was thought to be aggressive, he was always the one to try to ‘befriend’ it. 

He wasn’t scared of dragons. But he was damn scared of Nocturne.

The beast was still breathing heavily, deep in sleep. He saw his chest filling with air, his body going up and down, with his wings covering his back he looked almost meekly. He was sleeping almost on the side, so Seungmin hoped he wouldn’t notice him easily. He gulped, making the first step. He hoped that his instincts are not as sharp now as when he is awake. With Malgora it wasn’t really the case, but since Nocturne was so different, he just hoped this thing differed too.

His mark was pulsating, but he decided to ignore it. He was close, really close and once again in his life, he thanked God for his eyesight being outstanding. Nocturne’s scales where shining delicately, reflecting the moon. Just his head was way bigger than Seungmin’s whole body, and Seungmin let out a quiet sigh. He slowly examined the beast, shifting his eyes from his head to his neck and next to the wings until-

_Oh no…_

A deep wound was going through Nocturne’s back, it was covering the whole space between his wings. It was placed right on his spine, so no doubt why not even something as small as a human being could be carried on his back. If Seungmin judged correctly, it must have happened a long time ago. Did the wound get an infection? 

He put a hand on his body gently. If he got an infection, his body would be hotter than usual, and Seungmin would be able to feel it even through his thick scales. But he didn’t expect what he actually felt. 

It felt like touching Malgora. It felt like touching Hwang. 

Then he felt Nocturne moving. Of course, he felt the touch he had to. The dragon was waking up, and again Seungmin felt really close to death. The dragon lifted his head, and he saw his eyes fixed on him. Seungmin didn’t fully realise his power until Nocturne lifted himself wholly, as high as the surrounding trees. His jaws started opening, and Seungmin thought that he will feel the fire on his skin again. He started moving back subconsciously, his mouth open, expecting to meet his fate. Until his back hit another body. 

He turned around to meet Hwang’s dark expression. Even if he knew he was pissed, he also knew Nocturne wouldn’t hurt him now. When did Hwang become his definition of safety?

“What _the fuck_ are you doing?” Understanding Hwang seemed to be gone. Would he hit him? Beat him up? Did Seungmin finally break him and provoked him to show his true nature?

“I wanted…” Seungmin gulped. “I need to help him.”

“You are _not_ touching my dragon,” Hwang said firmly. 

“He’s dying, Hwang. Please, let me help him.” Seungmin almost whined. He could hate Hwang, but he will not let it happen.

“No. He’ll be fine, he always is.” He seemed to be unbothered by it, but Seungmin knew it was a mask. Maybe he always doubted that Hwang could actually care for anything, he was sure that he cared for his dragon. 

“Hwang-”

“What are you gonna do?!” For the first time, Seungmin saw him angry. Not just sadistic, not annoyed, not dominant. Angry. “You’re not a healer, you’re not a witch… You’re not even a Hunter!” 

“I know!” Seungmin truly didn’t need Hwang reminding him he was useless. He didn’t need Hwang in the first place. What he needed was saving this dragon. “But I know what to do! Just let me do it, just stop being so overweening!”

“You already killed one dragon!” 

Seungmin slapped his face. It was an instant reaction, he didn’t really control it, and it made him feel even weaker. He felt pathetic. He felt tears coming, and he couldn’t let Hwang see it. He turned around and rushed to the forest. It wasn’t running, not until he thought Hwang lost the sight of him. 

He stopped just when he realised he won’t be able to find the way back. Fuck! Why did he always have to be so stupid? He sat on the ground. Even if his eyesight was good tears made his vision blurry, and everything seemed so dark. God, he was sobbing. When did he become such a crybaby? He hid his face in his hands. He felt miserable, and he felt scared. 

Until he felt an arm on his shoulder. He looked up from his hands and met Hwang’s eyes. He was crouching by his side, and Seungmin wondered how he was always able to follow him without him noticing. He felt embarrassed for the man seeing him in this state. 

Hwang sat down fully.

“I’m sorry.” He said. “I don’t believe it was your fault, I never did. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Seungmin started crying again, but not because he felt hurt again, but because he needed it. For the first time, he let himself cry like he should have done a long time ago. Hiding his grief all the time was suffocating, but this shield was now completely broken.

Hwang hesitated to touch him, but when he started rubbing his back Seungmin let him. Seungmin needed someone, and this time he could accept that who he had was Hwang. 

  
  


***

It was two days later when Hwang found a cave for them again. Seungmin didn’t know why he always insisted on looking for them. Seungmin was used to just sleeping in the forest, he had nothing against it, but Hwang always wanted to stay hidden. Maybe he felt safer this way. Seungmin was guessing it was easier for him to protect his backpack. 

After their argument, Hwang comforted him, but he still couldn’t trust Seungmin. He asked him multiple times to let him help Nocturne, but the answer was always no. Hwang got back his composure and stopped getting mad at Seungmin, so his refusals were calm at least. Did he become more cautious realising it’s easy to hurt him?

Seungmin frowned thinking about it. He never thought about himself as an emotional person. It’s not like when he was still a Hunter or even before he had no reasons to cry. His life wasn’t perfect. He was raised by a rigorous uncle, had to leave the house at the age of _eight_ , it was always about working and becoming better. It wasn’t easy for him. 

But since he was a child, he knew he had a destiny. Malgora was waiting for him, and when he found her, she was always there to give him strength. He had a reason to live. 

As much as he hated Hwang, he couldn't let him know this suffering. He could wish to see him dead, he could wish the worst things to happen in his life. But not that. Not the death of his dragon. 

This time he didn’t leave until the middle of the night. He had to be sure Hwang’s sleep was deeper than the last time, his task wasn’t easy.

He explored the area before when he went to get them food. Hwang noticed he was gone for longer than before, but Seungmin could simply lie that he needed more time to find something edible. Hwang had no idea how magic related to plants. 

He entered the forest and hoped he won’t get lost. He tried really hard to memorise the way, he even counted steps, but you could never be sure. 

He felt relief when he saw the tree he was looking for. Few drops of silver blood were still shining on its bark, reflecting the moon. His arm was itching under his jacket, in the place he cut it to mark the right plant. 

He started climbing it. Luckily the tree wasn’t tall and had a lot of branches, so Seungmin could manage even with his useless ankle. He reached the fruit easily. He took a few more, hopefully for later. 

This fruit was usually called Snicker or Snick, it wasn’t an official name, but Seungmin thought it kind of suited. It was the strongest natural source of magic that Seungmin could recall. For humans, it could do nothing. This was probably why most of them didn’t know it existed. Even for most of the animals, it was useless. For dragons? It could do quite a lot. 

In general, dragons naturally protect themselves from magic. Their scales are like shield not letting in any type of magic, good or bad. But Nocturne’s shield was broken. 

Seungmin smiled. 

_This time, this is what can actually save you._

The fruit itself couldn’t heal everything of course, but what Nocturne needed at this point was removing the infection, and this was the role of the Snicker. After doing it, yes, Hwang was right. After removing the infection, Nocturne could do it on his own. His wound would start healing. 

The place where Nocturne was was placed on a small hill. Hwang wanted to keep him far from Seungmin and maybe he hoped Seungmin won’t bother going there. Well, fuck you, Hwang. He could make that sacrifice. 

Seungmin wondered how Nocturne would greet him this time. His thoughts came back to the moment when Seungmin touched the dragon. Was it possible they bonded? Seungmin had his dragon before, and Nocturne had his rider. It wasn’t possible, he never heard of something like this happening. 

_Well, if he eats me, at least I’ll know I was right._

Nocturne lifted his head when Seungmin approached him. He looked at him with his big sleepy eyes, blinking slowly. Seungmin came closer in a wave of courage. If the dragon wanted to hurt him, the time was now.

Nocturne moved his head even closer. Instead of eating him, he sniffed Seungmin and put his head down on the ground again uninterested. Seungmin sighed in relief and decided to do what he came for. He put his hand on the dragon, and again he felt something that definitely shouldn’t be there. In the last days, he learned how to postpone worrying about some problems to the right time. He climbed on the dragon, which wasn’t really an easy task. Nocturne didn’t react, fully accepting him on his back. Seungmin was careful not to hurt him and not to touch his wound. Sitting above it, he put the Snicker out of his pocket. He made a hole in it with his fingers. Its juice looked like water. Seungmin soaked his fingers, and in one quick movement, he sputtered it all over the wound. Then he rushed down, feeling the dragon move, falling to the ground in the end. He hit his shoulder while doing so, but it didn’t really matter. He saw Nocturne lifting his whole body and roaring in pain. 

_I know. But it will help you heal, I swear._

Nocturne roared again and soared into the air, and Seungmin fell the second time smacked by it. That was what Seungmin expected. He’ll be fine now. 

  
  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin didn’t expect anything entering the cave. Really. He should have, but he didn’t. He got snapped out of his imagination when strong arms grabbed his shoulders and pushed against the wall - or the side of the cave. Hwang moved his face dangerously close to his.

“What did you do to him?” Seungmin was getting creeps when Hwang was using this tone. His shoulder was still aching a bit after the hit and Hwang didn’t help when he grabbed it like that. Even though it hurt, this time, he didn’t blame him for reacting like this. If this was Malgora, Seungmin would react exactly the same way. 

“I helped…” Seungmin answered weakly. He was scared of what Hwang could be thinking now. He must have heard Nocturne’s roars. Did he think Seungmin hurt him?

Hwang moved even closer, and Seungmin froze. Their noses were like an inch apart. 

“Is this your revenge?” Hwang whispered. 

Seungmin pushed him off himself. He moved away and looked Hwang in the eyes. There was no fear in him. 

“Do you really think I could hurt a dragon?” 

Hwang just kept looking at him, as he used to do. Thinking, analysing. After that, he shook his head delicately and looked aside. Seungmin noticed that his eyes were shining with tears that Hwang was holding. Seungmin felt like this view hit him in the face. 

Then Hwang looked in his eyes again.

“If he won’t heal, I’m gonna kill you.” With that, he left the cave to drown in the forest. 

Seungmin knew that he meant it. 


	4. Chapter 4

“Fuck.” They both said in perfect sync and looked at each other. 

During the last few days, Nocturne’s wound got better. The day after Seungmin had betrayed Hwang’s non-existent trust, it became less inflamed. After some time Hwang let Seungmin treat the dragon again, seeing Seungmin hadn’t cheated him. Seungmin appreciated the fact that he didn’t have to be killed. For now at least. 

Nocturne still couldn’t be ridden, not for some time. Even if he could be, Seungmin wasn’t sure Hwang would let him ride him. Actually, he highly doubted it. 

The dragon became more lively. He seemed to get stronger, which brought joy for both Hwang and Seungmin. He also regained the appetite which, according to Hwang, was lost since he got hurt in a battle. 

So they had a dragon, and they had a horse. Well, they used to have a horse. 

“You know…” Seungmin started. They were standing like two sticks, mouth agape, general disbelief. “We weren’t good horse-parents anyway.” 

Hwang nodded slowly staring at the pile of burned bones, without closing his mouth. 

“What do horses eat actually?” Seungmin continued, and Hwang snorted delicately. “You know?” Slow shaking of Hwang’s head. “I don’t know either.” 

“Grass.” Hwang offered, and Seungmin laughed. 

“I say Nocturne just wanted to relieve him from the hell of being under our care.” 

They both laughed, but it was more like laughing through tears. They knew that without a horse and without a healthy dragon, all they could do was walking. And believe it, no one was as upset about it as Seungmin and his ankle. But you know, laughing seemed to be better than crying, and he was already tired of open whining. 

He didn’t know how joking with Hwang became comfortable, but Seungmin guessed he just had nothing better to do and no one better to talk to. They weren’t friends, no. But Seungmin wasn’t also sure if they still were enemies. They had mutual problems and mutual aim when Seungmin learned to accept it.

Seungmin started believing that whatever Hwang wanted him to help him with wasn’t something that Seungmin would hate him for. Well, Seungmin already did hate Hwang, so it couldn’t be worse, right? The point is that Hwang assured Seungmin that it wasn’t anything evil. He even told him that he thought that if Seungmin heard about his problem, he would agree to help himself. Seungmin then wondered why he couldn’t just be open about it. Hwang said that it was safer if he didn’t know for now. 

“Just trust me, Seungmin.” He said a few days ago. “I’m not going to hurt you anymore.”

His eyes were saying ‘not without a reason’, but for now it was enough. And to be honest, Hwang got a fair amount of Seungmin’s trust. Not more than a person who did what Hwang did should get, but at least Seungmin wasn’t afraid to sleep near him anymore. 

He had to admit that since they left the witches’ lair, Hwang didn’t physically hurt him, not even once. Seungmin could annoy him, yell at him, even slap his face, but Hwang even when he was angry, he would never punch him or kick him or do anything like that. 

This got Seungmin thinking. Maybe he wasn’t a psychopath after all? Maybe his reasons were so important that he started torturing and murdering people just to get what he needed. It wasn’t making it any less evil in Seungmin’s eyes, but he was glad to accept the thought of Hwang being sane. 

What he wasn’t glad about was the fact that Hwang had no mercy for him and his legs. 

Their walk started a few hours ago. Actually, several minutes after they had discovered the morning tragedy. He was already so tired, he started limping again. Hwang was completely ignoring this fact, and a part of Seungmin was thankful that he didn’t try to ridicule his disability or wasn’t making him feel worse in any way. At the same time, he really needed to take a break.

“Half an hour. Half an hour won’t even make a difference.” Seungmin’s motivation not to whine again was gone as quickly as every other motivation he ever got. 

“We will rest when we find some water. If there’s no water, there’s no point in stopping.” How did he have so much energy? He was usually just putting his ass down on a dragon and flying, wasn't he? 

“Fuck. Just fucking carry me if so.” His ankle was torturing him to the point where he didn’t even mind a physical contact with the devil. 

Hwang laughed. 

“I’m not your dad.”

“Yeah certainly, ‘cause I don’t have one,” Seungmin said dismissively.

“If you want me to pity you, you have to try something else, I grew up without a father as well.” He said misinterpreting Seungmin’s words. Seungmin said it just to say it, he really didn’t care. 

“What if I told you I was captured and tortured by a psychopath? Do you pity me now? Can I rest?” He played along. 

Hwang laughed quietly, but his smile faded right after. For a few minutes, they just walked in silence, Hwang thinking about something again. Seungmin noticed that they were similar in means of drowning in thoughts. They both were doing it often, thinking and analysing the situation. But maybe Hwang was a little better at that. 

“I’m sorry, Seungmin.” He finally spoke. Seungmin was shocked. He learned during the last few days that Hwang wasn’t as horrible as he thought at first. He expected a lot, but not an apology. “I’m really sorry about that. But I had to…”

Seungmin snorted. 

“Save it.” 

Hwang gulped, keeping his eyes on the ground. 

“I can’t explain anything to you now. Just know that I am sorry. Know that if I knew another way, I wouldn’t have done any of this.” His voice was quiet, but it sounded different than the voice he used to express his demands. The worst part was that Seungmin actually believed that he was sorry. He had a lot of things to accuse him of, but lying wasn’t one of them. If Hwang said he was sorry, he was. It still couldn’t fix anything though. 

Seungmin looked at him with contempt in his eyes. 

“You are a murderer.” He said adding just a bit of hatred to each word. 

“Yes…” Until this point, Seungmin had hoped to hear ‘no’. He hoped that maybe it wasn’t the thing, that the guy who slept by his side didn’t actually kill anyone. These hopes were crushed. “I am a murderer, I hurt a lot of people and I don’t regret it.” This sentence was like a cold shower to Seungmin. So he actually was as evil as he had thought. “But I feel bad for hurting you. This one I would change if I could.” 

Seungmin snorted again. 

“Fuck you.” He said.

“Yeah, I heard that before.” Hwang smiled at him. 

Somehow it was just as easy for the tension to be gone. 

  
  
  


***

  
  


“So you never met your parents?” He asked just to kill the boredom probably.

“No,” Seungmin answered uninterestedly. 

“Never even asked about them?” 

Seungmin shook his head. 

“Really? Not even once?” Hwang sounded surprised. Even weirder was the fact that he actually seemed interested in Seungmin’s story. It was odd, the two of them, both twenty-six years old guys as he learned, talking about their parents. Just then Seungmin realised he had never talked about it with anyone. He never found it interesting. 

“I never cared.” He said, and it was honest. “I had my uncle, and then I had Malgora.” He stopped for a few seconds to think about the true meaning of his disinterest. “I knew my destiny, I knew what to do… So such things didn’t matter.” 

“Hmm…” Hwang contemplated for a minute. “I think it’s a bit weird not to know who your parents were.” He looked at Seungmin, but there was no judgement in his eyes, just curiosity.

Seungmin shrugged. 

“Who were  _ your _ parents?” At first, he asked just to ask, but then he realised it could be actually interesting.

_ How did you become who you are? _

“My father was a drunkard.” He said without a grudge, it sounded almost proud. He seemed to find it kind of funny, and Seungmin wondered where it came from. “He was never home, so I don’t remember him that well. He was drinking and drinking until he died when I was around seven.” He was speaking calmly, but Seungmin knew he just learned to be calm about this. For some reason, he felt sorry for him. “Then my… My mom, she…” A small pause and a deep breath. “She had many lovers, you know?” Hwang looked at him with a smile, and Seungmin wanted to know the actual reason for it. 

“She was a great mother, though.” He continued. “She was always taking care of…” Another pause. “She was good… She died when I was a teenager, and then I got into troubles.” He laughed in the end.

Seungmin didn’t know what to say. so he just stayed quiet. Although he didn’t show it, he was shocked that Hwang decided to share with him this much. He was glad he did though, cause he learned few things.

The first one was that he actually had a story and he had some feelings, what Seungmin suspected but still wasn’t sure sometimes. Maybe he could even call Hwang sensitive, and this was quite a discovery. 

The other thing he learned, or maybe just started suspecting, was that his problems started with his family. He was obviously hiding something. His story was honest, but there was something he didn’t want to tell Seungmin about, so he didn’t. Seungmin wondered if the help he needed from him wasn’t actually something trivial in relation to the world. 

“And your uncle? What kind of person is he?”

Seungmin gulped. Is? Or was?

“You know, an old prick.” He said, and Hwang answered him with laughter. He seemed to understand that Seungmin cared for his uncle, even if uncle had a hard character. This understanding made Seungmin want to share a little more. “He took care of me when I was… an orphan actually. He’s my only family and I…” Love him. “You know, he’s just not very affectionate. For him taking care of a child is feeding them and giving them clothes and shelter, but maybe a child needs a little more than that.” 

Hwang nodded. He accepted Seungmin’s confession with ease. Seungmin didn’t know how he was making it so easy to talk with him. He  _ hated _ him. Yet he wanted to share with him more and more. Seungmin was getting angry about what Hwang did, and he was laughing with him in the next second. Then he thought that maybe when all of this is over, he won’t even seek revenge. Maybe he’ll just shake his hand, wish him everything that’s the worst and go find himself a new home since Hwang burned the previous one. 

“Actually…” Seungmin chuckled. “I don’t even know if he’s related to me.”

“Really?” Hwang was smiling at him like he wanted to show that it’s funny, but it’s also okay. 

“Yeah.” Seungmin laughed. “I don’t know where he took me from.” 

Hwang laughed again before his face changed and he looked kind of disturbed.

“I think your uncle is alive.” He said, and Seungmin felt how his heart sank a bit. 

“How could you know?” There was reproach in his voice which he didn’t try to hide. It was truly amazing how their conversations were always going up and down, from something that could sound friendly to grief and hatred, then to casual again. 

“I have a feeling. Intuition.” His voice was comforting, and Seungmin didn’t know if he should believe him this time or not. “He probably kicked some Traitor’s ass if he even met one.”

Seungmin laughed, but it was quite bitter. 

“If he’s dead it’s on you, you know that?”

“I know…” He said. “I know.”

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin always was a heavy sleeper. Even if he always used to mock Nada for sleeping way too deeply, sometimes he could be even worse. Besides all that, he could sleep for hours. 

Hwang wasn’t any of that. He was quite vigilant, maybe he wasn’t awakened at every sound, but he wasn’t such a lost cause as Seungmin. He was also fine with sleeping just a few hours, opposite to Seungmin. Every day he was waking up earlier than Seungmin, making everything ready for the way, letting him sleep for a few more minutes and then waking him up and listening to his whining. It was just like having a kid. This day he let him sleep more than usual until someone else decided he had enough. 

Seungmin slowly opened his eyes, feeling he wasn’t alone. He saw a big smile hanging above his face and he screamed. His heart was beating so fast he actually thought he’s gonna get a heart attack. Great morning.

“Hello!” He heard a familiar face and familiar laughter. 

“Minho,” Seungmin said disbelievingly. “What the fuck are doing here?” 

Minho shrugged and laughed again. 

“Been following you! Aren’t you happy to see me?” He said and poked Seungmin’s shoulder. 

Was he happy? Surprised for sure. But he wasn’t sure of his own feelings. Maybe it was nice to see Minho, but should it be nice? Seungmin knew who he was but somehow… seeing him felt nice. Maybe Seungmin was ashamed to admit that.

“Where’s Hwang?” Seungmin looked around, but the devil was nowhere to be seen. 

Minho rolled his eyes. 

“Your prince went to… I don’t know, do something. You should miss me instead!” He was showing probably fake reproach. 

_ Prince? Like what? Prince Evil?  _

“Why did you follow us?” Seungmin asked.

Was he tired of being who he was? Did he want to change? Seungmin had a bit of hope that he wanted to stop living with the witches and hurting people. But he’ll probably crash his hopes, just like Hwang did. 

Minho waved his hand dismissively. 

“That later. Give me food first.” 

Seungmin stood up to share some of their supplies with Minho. He tossed some at him, took one for himself and sat again to eat. Minho started eating as he used to, without any complaints. 

_ He may be eating our supplies, but at least he doesn’t say it stinks.  _

“So for how long you two have been fucking?” 

Seungmin choked on his dry root. 

“What?” Just what. No more thoughts. Head empty. 

“You know…” Minho started explaining. He seemed to be sure of his words. “I’ve expected you to be dead by now, yet Hwang played a hero and took you out of there. Just saying, I know what it is.”

“I hate him!” Seungmin was resentful just at the thought of it. 

Minho shrugged still eating as if it wasn’t an argument at all. 

“And he’s a guy.” He added, hoping to end this conversation. 

“What about it?” Minho seemed to still not believe Seungmin. 

Seungmin was scandalised. How could he even think that Seungmin could like his torturer? Maybe in Minho’s world it was normal, but Seungmin didn’t belong to his world. How did all of this even appear in his head? 

Was Hwang… into men? 

Speaking of the devil. Hwang came back, and he looked glad that Seungmin woke up. He approached them calmly and sat between them. 

Seungmin felt awkward. It wasn’t about the suspicion that Hwang liked men, Seungmin wasn’t like that. He never judged people by who they loved, and he didn’t mean to judge Hwang for that. It was the thought of Hwang liking  _ him _ . Was it possible? Is this why he decided not to kill him? If this was the case, Seungmin didn’t like it at all. 

“So maybe now you will tell us why you decided to go after us?” He said to Minho and Seungmin rose his eyebrow. He was using a different tone while talking to him than he used while talking to Seungmin. The tone he used to Minho sounded less friendly, which probably meant they were actually more familiar with each other. With Seungmin he was more careful, more… delicate in a way. Not counting the times when he wanted to control him of course. 

“Witches are after you,” Minho answered still chewing, and Seungmin felt his heart beating faster. How will they fight a witch clan and Traitors with just one dragon which didn’t even heal yet? They didn’t even have any weapons, and Seungmin was weak. Why the hell did Hwang take only a dagger with him? Well, witches probably didn’t let Traitors have silver swords, and Hwang’s sword probably used to be silver once. He looked at Hwang. His face was worried and disappointed, but opposite to Seungmin, he seemed not to be even close to panic. Seungmin tried not to breathe so heavily so the two men wouldn’t notice what was happening in his head. 

“What? Don’t tell me you didn’t expect that.” Said Minho, absolutely unbothered at the possibility of his friend dying soon. 

“I did,” Hwang answered. “I thought that they either chase us instantly or won’t care at all… But because they didn’t react for so long, I thought it’s the latter.” Considering the situation they found themselves in, he was quite calm. Seungmin was beginning to think that he was simply used to being generally fucked.

“You know, you made quite a boo-boo.” 

Hwang frowned. He seemed to understand Minho’s language quite well, Seungmin would guess that he was just afraid Minho will say too much.

What did Hwang do?

Then Seungmin’s thoughts reached his backpack. He was never leaving Seungmin alone with it, he was literally protecting it all the time, didn’t let Seungmin even touch it. 

_ He… He stole something.  _

“Still, they didn’t react right after, so I hoped they didn’t realise the importance… of some things.” Hwang explained, and it was logical in Seungmin’s opinion. He gave a thought to the fact that Hwang was actually risking so much. It was fair for him to expect he won’t succeed, yet he took a risk. Damn, he was brave. Or maybe he just had to be. 

“But they did react.” Said Minho and stood up to peek into their food supplies himself. “They sent an assassin.” He was still more interested in the bag, so he just took what he wanted -  _ half  _ of their actual supplies - and only then came back to them. 

“An… an assassin?” For a second Hwang was actually as worried as he should be. “Who?”

“Me.” Said Minho and started laughing. Hwang looked at him disappointed, but Seungmin thought he was used to situations like this as well. 

“You fucker.” He mumbled under his breath. “So you’re leaving the clan? Or did you become slow?”

Seungmin felt uncomfortable again. So this was Minho’s role between the Traitors? Was he an assassin, or was he just taking the tasks that he liked?. There still was a possibility that Minho wanted to do his job and Seungmin gulped. After all this time he still wasn’t able to decode Minho. He had no idea how much this man could actually be trusted. 

Minho shrugged. 

“I guess I’m leaving. It’s not as fun since you two left.” He said and kicked Seungmin’s leg teasingly, still sitting on the ground. Seungmin ignored him. “The rest of them is boring as fuck.”

Hwang nodded. 

So Minho was leaving. Seungmin wondered what was his plan now. Did he want to enter another clan? Seungmin wished he chose the right way this time. At the same time, he highly doubted that Minho wanted to find a stable job and start a family. 

“So you know, right after you left I started chasing you, but I guess I was lazy.” He said and laughed. “You bitch took my horse!” He added and hit Hwang’s shoulder teasingly. Seungmin watched Hwang’s eyes grow a little bigger. 

_ Fuck. _

Seungmin didn’t think that the horse didn’t belong to Hwang. The huge black stallion suited him well, so he didn’t question. Thinking of how Hwang had no idea how to take care of a horse, he should have questioned.

“At least you two spent more time together.” Seungmin hated both the tone and the insinuation that Minho made. “So, where’s Sammy?”

“Sammy?” Hwang asked hesitantly. 

“My horse,” Minho answered smiling. “I missed him, where is he?”

Seungmin and Hwang looked at each other slowly. 

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin and Hwang were both standing in front of Minho, like two guilty kids waiting for their parent to reprimand them. Minho looked like a mantis, shifting his reproachful eyes from one villain to another with a burned Sammy bone in his hand. 

Before Seungmin had a chance to react, Minho hit his head with the bone. 

“Hey!” He screamed offended. “ _ He _ stole your horse!” He pointed at Hwang with his hand. “Hit  _ him _ !” 

Hwang’s eyes were saying ‘betrayal’ when he looked at Seungmin briefly before the bone crashed his forehead. 

“Oh, I will!” Said Minho and immediately hit him again.

“Minho!” Hwang screamed between a round of hits. “Stop it!” He tried to shield himself with his hands. “Stop it!”

“I loved this horse!” Minho stopped probably just to switch to a verbal fight. 

“You didn’t!” Hwang answered. Minho looked at the bone he was holding to ponder for a few seconds. 

“Yeah, I didn’t.” He admitted and tossed the bone to the ground. 

Seungmin sighed in relief, knowing that the encounter was over. He wanted to laugh at Hwang’s pouting face. He felt satisfied that in the end, Hwang got the beating for choosing the beast. Deserved. 

“So, you took another horse, right?” Hwang asked after a few minutes when he felt safe. There was a trace of hope in his voice. Hwang was much stronger in terms of walking than Seungmin was, but he must have been tired too. He just wasn’t expressing it as clearly as Seungmin. Yeah, they would use a horse. 

“Yeah, that bay disaster that bit Kane once.” 

Seungmin gulped at the thought of not only another horse but a horse that bites people. Minho headed to the part of the forest that he probably came from and Hwang and Seungmin followed him. He stopped after a while and started looking around. 

“So…” Hwang spoke after at least two minutes of silence that accompanied Minho’s puzzlement. “Which tree did you tie it to?”

Minho turned around to look at Hwang.

“Was I supposed to do that?” 

  
  


***

  
  


While walking with Minho time seemed to pass faster than while walking just with Hwang. After he stopped being scandalised by the fact that his horse run away and after he stopped repeating “Sammy would never!” he was quite an entertaining company. 

He wasn’t the person to grumble, opposite to Seungmin, so Seungmin guessed it was a nice change for Hwang too. Seungmin was quite intrigued by the fact that Minho was fine with almost everything. Whatever was happening, he wasn’t complaining he just accepted the fact and moved on. Something that Seungmin should probably learn from him. 

The minus of walking with Minho was the fact that he had no inhibitions to eat all the food they had. Seungmin couldn’t even save anything for later, because Minho didn’t know such a concept. When they were stopping, and Seungmin was searching the forest to find something edible usually he had to go again right after he came back ‘cause the bottomless well Minho thought everything belonged to him. Annoying, but still better than being only with Hwang. 

The devil didn’t talk much when Minho was around. Minho was taking over the conversation, and Hwang seemed to be glad about it. In this case, Seungmin could understand him well, he was never the type of a talker as well. Minho seemed to be used to this too. Actually, from what Seungmin remembered from his time in the cell, Minho didn’t even need the second participant to make a conversation. 

Seungmin wasn’t even that surprised that Minho didn't ask Hwang why he actually decided to run away. Minho definitely had known more than Seungmin did. In addition, he probably thought he understood the situation Hwang and Seungmin were in. Seungmin winced at the thought of it. 

_ Never. Fucking never.  _

He subconsciously looked to the side to see Hwang’s face. Hwang noticed it and smiled at him. Seungmin looked away quickly. He felt his ears turning red. 

He heard Minho telling some story, but it was just like background noise for him. Don’t get him wrong, Seungmin started accepting that he actually did consider Minho his friend. But Minho usually didn’t ask for attention even when he was talking, so Seungmin naturally didn’t give it to him. He had a head full of worries, and even if he needed a distraction, he wasn’t able to appreciate it. 

At least Hwang promised that they’ll spend this night in a tavern. At this point, he actually started being impressed by the fact how well Hwang knew the area. Seungmin wondered if he was so good at memorising the way and everything that was around, or if he was crossing this road way too many times. 

Seungmin smiled unintentionally. He had various reasons to be happy at the thought of sleeping in a tavern. After his experience with taverns in general, he would never think that the possibility of sleeping in one would be so exciting to him. But then he was forced to sleep in a nasty cell and next to sleep in the forest, so he guessed he hardened himself. 

He was excited not only for a real bed and food. He was excited for other people around. And no, Seungmin didn’t plan to socialise. Just the thing that Hwang was okay with the fact that they will meet other people. This meant that he had some amount of trust towards him. Seungmin didn’t know why he was happy about it. He didn’t even know why he didn’t feel like betraying this trust anyway. He was deeply into his problem, whatever this problem was. 

He was such a mess. 

He had no idea when his mind settled on helping Hwang. He was a hostage. If Hwang just let him go, he would go. But without Hwang setting him free… he wasn’t sure if he was able to try to run away if he had a chance. 

Was he a coward? Maybe. He just felt like not risking it would better for him for now. Hwang won’t hurt him, he said that. Seungmin knew he could believe Hwang even if he couldn’t trust him. But if he had to choose between Seungmin and his case… Seungmin might get hurt. 

The excitement he felt was mixing with general confusion. He felt like staying. It was a scary thought, but he really did, and it was just getting to him when they were on their way again, and the background noise of Minho talking was giving him such a great environment for staying quiet and thinking. It felt bitter to realise in the next second that it was probably caused by the fact that he had nowhere to go. If he managed to run away, where to? 

Seungmin glanced at the faces of both men walking with him. He remembered when he saw those faces for the first time, and he was terrified. He thought of them as bad people, and he wondered how he could call them now. He learned to accept Minho in some sort of way and he still strongly disliked Hwang, but somehow he could stand his company. He could share his feelings with him, he could laugh with him.

How would he feel for once thinking about them not as evil people, but just… people?

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin entered the tavern and sniffed the blessed smell of sweat and alcohol in. He felt Hwang patting his shoulder while telling him to find a free table, and he didn’t even mind being touched by him. He was excited. He did what Hwang told him to, and then he noticed that they had lost Minho. 

He was inside, but apparently, he decided that the company of some strangers is way more interesting than the company of Hwang and Seungmin. Seungmin observed how quickly he gained their trust and how faces full of confusion changed and started following Minho’s laughter. Impressive. 

Hwang came back with two glasses of beer and Seungmin didn’t remember if he ever felt so grateful to him. He must have predicted that Minho will be gone as soon as they enter the place, so he didn’t bother buying one more. Or he just didn’t want to pay for him. Either way, it was just the two of them again. 

Seungmin took the glass and started drinking like he hadn’t been drinking beer in ages, which actually felt real. Then he looked at Hwang and noticed that the man was looking at him with a slight smile observing his actions. 

“Thanks,” Seungmin said reluctantly. It was hard for him to say it, but in fact, he was thankful. He didn’t have to buy him anything to drink and as much as Seungmin hated to admit that it was a nice gesture. 

“You’re welcome,” Hwang said calmly and started drinking himself. 

Seungmin continued sipping on the beer and the time was passing in silence. For some time he didn’t mind, he felt content with just sitting there and drinking. Even if he wasn’t good with alcohol, he missed feeling it in his body, in his head. 

Then he started watching Hwang’s face shamelessly. He was one of these people whose skin looked golden in this kind of lighting. He had dark hair, dark eyes and dark clothes but looking at him didn’t feel bad. Seungmin hated himself for how he actually enjoyed it. He couldn’t recognise the reason, but somehow his eyes always wandered towards him. When Hwang met his eyes, he didn’t turn away.

He got used to talking to him as well. The whole day filled with Minho felt unusual, he kind of missed the voice that became more familiar to him. He was sure he still hated Hwang, but he became a moth flying to the fire. He became alone and lost in the world, and the only thing that felt familiar, that felt his, was Hwang. 

The number of facts about himself that Seungmin started accepting this day was making him feel dizzy. 

He looked at the glass that used to be filled with beer. It wasn’t the facts what made him feel dizzy. 

Then Hwang stood up to buy him another one. Oops. How much time did pass since they entered? Five minutes? It wasn’t good. But it felt good. 

“You know…” Seungmin started talking when Hwang came back. “Minho thinks some bad things about us.” He definitely didn’t mean to say that.

“Minho thinks that lizards are baby dragons,” Hwang answered, and Seungmin laughed. 

He probably didn’t get what Seungmin meant, and it was a relief. And if he did get it, then he found it unreliable, and it was an even bigger relief. 

“Minho…” He started talking again, but he wasn’t sure how he wanted to lead this conversation. “How did he… Why is he like that?” Seungmin wanted to slap himself for the way he worded this question. 

Hwang rose an eyebrow. 

“Like what?” He asked. Seungmin didn’t know the answer.

“Like… he doesn’t really care about… a lot of things.” He wasn’t making it any better, and he was afraid that Hwang will get mad at him. “Don’t get me wrong, I just mean he’s unusual.”

“You just mean that in your eyes he’s a bad person, and he doesn’t even care about it,” Hwang answered. His voice was calm, but Seungmin felt chills going through his body. 

“No…” But actually yes. 

Hwang was quiet for a few minutes, and if Seungmin didn’t know him better, he would wonder if he’s actually planning to answer at all. 

“Minho grew up in a merchant family, did you know?” Hwang finally spoke, but when he asked the question, Seungmin didn’t feel like he was supposed to answer. “His family was rich in fact, but if you think he’s one of the boys whose parents didn’t love him, so he became a criminal, you are wrong. They were always finding time for him and from what I know… I’ve never heard about such a loving family as Minho’s.” Seungmin just kept looking at him when he was talking, too intimidated to interrupt. “Not a single tragedy happened, no abusement, no deaths, not a single thing which went wrong. And if you wanna know more both his parents are alive, they’re not in touch, but that was Minho’s choice.” Hwang gulped a bit of his beer and looked at him again. “You know nothing about people, Seungmin. Don’t try to prove you do.” 

Yet another bitter fact - he was right, and Seungmin was aware of that. Every time he wanted to decode their intentions, their personalities, anything about the two of them, he was wrong. Maybe it was because he had never met anyone like them, but maybe it was because he, in fact, didn’t know shit.

“Listen, I’m not mad at you.” Seungmin looked up at Hwang when he spoke again. He didn’t notice when he actually looked down, and when he realised that he made himself look like a scolded child, he cringed at himself. “But maybe you should stop categorising people.”

Seungmin wasn’t sure what he meant. Was he too judgemental? He never thought he was, but maybe he was shitty at analysing himself as well.

“You know what I like about Minho?” Hwang continued. “He never divides things or people into good and bad. I think he doesn’t even get the concept of good and evil. He sees everything as either interesting or not, and with that, he makes his decisions.”

“You’re saying I should be like Minho?” Seungmin asked.

“No.” Hwang laughed. “I’m saying you should stop tormenting yourself over abstract concepts. You’re ready to refuse being helped, reject your needs and wants for things that you cannot understand yourself.” He looked at Seungmin up and down slowly. “It hasn’t done anything good for you so far.” 

Seungmin just kept staring at him for a while. What did he mean by those needs and wants? What did he mean in general? 

His head was already spinning after the two glasses of beer, and it just made him realise that even if he was never good with alcohol, now he was even worse. He watched Hwang stand up and head to the host to buy more beer, and he was glad to observe what he was doing. Then he was back, and Seungmin didn’t know why but he just felt like smiling at him, so he did. He narrowed his eyes which made him look like a viper. 

“You know everything about people, don’t you?” Even if Seungmin’s smile was in a way rude, Hwang smiled back sincerely. 

“I don’t.” He said simply.

Seungmin hated how Hwang smiled at him. He was doing it often, he smiled like he wanted to say he only wants good things for Seungmin, but Seungmin knew it wasn’t true. 

“You knew everything about me…” Seungmin mumbled. He didn’t even know why he mentioned it. He wanted to know the reason, but maybe it wasn’t the best time for this. 

Hwang nodded. 

“Your friend drinks a lot.” He said and laughed quietly. 

Seungmin opened his mouth unwillingly. This bitch. Jisung. 

What were the odds of Hwang randomly meeting Jisung, the drunk idiot, in a place like this, joining him and getting all the facts about Seungmin’s life out of him? Was he just babbling about Seungmin to everyone? Hwang might have his charms but to this point? 

Wait, Hwang had what? 

“So how was  _ your _ friend? Jisung?” He interrupted Seungmin’s thoughts. 

“Was?” Seungmin asked suspiciously and felt his heart beating faster for a few seconds. 

Hwang nodded again.

“Before you broke him.” 

Seungmin’s heart sank. It was true. It was true, so he couldn’t be mad at Hwang, but he just didn’t expect him to say that. But there was no reproach or contempt or anything like that in his eyes. Somehow even if Hwang’s words hurt, he could find comfort in him. Slowly he calmed down. 

_ It’s okay Seungmin. Be mature.  _

“He was… cheerful, you know. Not like now drunk-happy, just your local smiley boy.” He said, and Hwang smiled, hearing his memories. “He was similar to Minho, in a way.” He took a break to think about the type of person that Jisung used to be. 

Seungmin knew Jisung and Nada for almost whole his life. He met them when he was in Hunter School, Nada was a daughter of one of the Mentors so she was always around and Jisung and his family lived near the school building. It was always the three of them since they were kids till they were adults, they were like a family. 

Jisung was a ray of walking sunshine. He was a mood maker but also a trouble maker. Seungmin smiled at this thought. Both him and Nada couldn’t follow him and his energy. 

He had big eyes. He looked like a squirrel and liked to act like one. He was handsome, and Seungmin remembered how all the girls they met were always following Jisung. Everyone was easily falling for the kind and clever boy. But Jisung liked Nada. 

“I’m… I’m the evil one, not you.” He suddenly said, surprising even himself. 

His hands went to his head, but this time Hwang stopped them. He put his hands on Seungmin’s wrists, keeping them on the table. Seungmin stared at them before he looked up at Hwang. The way Hwang was keeping his eyes on Seungmin all this time, usually would intimidate him, but this day Seungmin enjoyed it. 

“Maybe we’re both evil.” He said quietly, his voice deep. 

“But maybe none of us is.” He added after a while.

Seungmin gulped. If that’s so, were they the same? This concept seemed to be more real than ever. 

Hwang took his hands away and leaned on the back of the chair. Sitting in this way, looking kinda down on him, he was intimidating and approachable at the same time. For the first time, Seungmin noticed that he had a small mole right under his eye. He wanted to touch it. 

“I… I should go to sleep.” He mumbled abashed. 

Hwang was watching him with a tilted head and a sly smile, his hair was covering one of his eyes. He extended his hand to the side to show Seungmin the direction, and only then he broke the eye contact. 

“It’s this way.” He mumbled back. “The first room on the left.” 

Seungmin got up quickly yet awkwardly and followed the direction that Hwang had shown him. He wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. He had no idea what was going inside his head lately. 

He thought that on the other side of the door that Hwang showed him he would find the rooms, but the way was not over. Seungmin couldn’t believe that he kept forgetting how much of evil existed in this world. He definitely didn’t miss this particular tool of torture. 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” He said and started climbing the stairs. 

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin entered the room and got surprised again. It was a single one, which meant that Hwang paid for two separate rooms for them and maybe one for Minho. So once again, he had thought about Seungmin’s well being.

Seungmin shrugged to himself and threw his body on the bed. When he lay down, he felt like his brain was dancing in his skull.

It didn’t feel as good to finally be falling asleep alone as he thought it will. It felt like something was lacking, and Seungmin didn’t like this feeling at all. 

Maybe he should stop analysing everything when he was fucking drunk. 

Even though his head was full of weird thoughts, he fell asleep quickly.

About two hours might have passed when he got woken up, but the sleep felt like a blink. He heard firm knocking on the door, but he hoped that if he ignored it for long enough, the interrupter would disappear. It didn’t happen, so he stood up with a loud demonstrative sigh and headed to the door. 

He felt his face was swollen, and he could barely see. He probably smelled like the tavern itself. In other words, he really wanted to go back to bed. 

He opened the door and saw Hwang waiting for him. He didn’t look mad or annoyed even if Seungmin had let him wait for God knew how long and Seungmin himself was impressed with his patience. 

“Come.” He said quietly and started walking. Seungmin wasn’t feeling like guessing again. He obviously wasn’t in the mood, but it’s not like he had been given any choices lately.

Hwang led him to his own room and for a second Seungmin stopped to wonder if he should enter. Then he cussed at himself in his head for being attached to Minho’s bullshit this much. It was so stupid. 

“I have something for you,” Hwang said and made Seungmin confused once again. 

Then the man handed him a dagger. Seungmin took it hesitantly, as it was just a trick. He got it out of the sheath slowly and took a look. It was decorated simply but really prettily. It had small amethysts on both sides of the handle, their purple shade made Seungmin’s heart feel warm. He touched the blade carefully, only then noticing it was silver. He looked up at Hwang, wanting an explanation. 

“Now you have your own.” He said simply and smiled. Hwang’s dagger wasn't even silver, he actually got him something better than he had himself. 

“Why?” Seungmin asked weakly. 

Hwang shrugged. 

“Just wanted to.” He answered as it was explaining anything. “Now we’re in bigger danger than ever, and I just realised I left you completely defenceless.”

Shouldn’t he be defenceless? He was a hostage. As much as it was not as noticeable now, it was still true, so maybe his oppressor shouldn’t be giving him a weapon. He imagined attacking Hwang with it and frowned at the discomfort he felt. 

_ This bitch really knows me better than I do. _

“Thank you.” He said, at least once abandoning his sulky persona and Hwang smiled at him again. He felt him touching his shoulder and looked down. 

Did he make him fucking shy? What was in the air that day? 

“Go back to sleep.” He said. “We should leave early.” 

Seungmin nodded and left the room. He wondered if the sleep comes as easy as before. 

  
  


***

  
  


Surprisingly Seungmin got downstairs faster than Hwang, as he was still gathering his, or their things. The main room of the tavern was almost absolutely empty, not counting one person sleeping on the table next to several empty and half-empty beer glasses. 

So Hwang didn’t get Minho a room after all. 

Finally, Hwang ran down the stairs and immediately headed to the sleeping friend as if he was absolutely sure he will find him there. He took out a few coins and put them to Minho’s pocket. 

“What are you doing?” Seungmin asked out of pure curiosity.

“His new friends took even his comb.” Hwang laughed. “This dumbass always gets himself robbed.”

Seungmin hummed in understanding. It was a surprise for him to notice how Hwang was always silently taking care of his friend, even if it looked like a complete opposite of it. Somewhere deep in heart, he was a caring person, even if he could be cruel as well. For the first time, Seungmin thought that hurting people wasn’t actually easy for him. As hard it was to believe in that, he was a person who wanted good for people. So if he did all those horrible things, it must have been for a greater cause. 

Seungmin gasped and hoped that Hwang didn’t hear it. 

_ You’re trying to protect someone.  _

“Come on.” He said, and Seungmin forced himself to act as he didn’t just discover the truth about him. “We have to move faster from now on.” 

Even if they were in such a danger, Hwang remained calm, maybe even positive. Yeah, he was definitely used to being fucked. 

Hwang headed to the door, and Seungmin followed him.

“We’re just going to leave Minho?” He asked quickly.

“This guy is a boomerang. There’s not such a thing as leaving him.” Hwang gave him one more sly smile, and then again, the journey was on.


	5. Chapter 5

Hyunjin woke up really early, as he used to do. The next thing that had become his habit lately was looking to the side, just to make sure Seungmin was still there and he was safe. Every time after Hyunjin woke up, he felt anxiety pounding in his heart which couldn’t be reassured until he saw Seungmin’s face. He needed him. He needed his help, and after he had risked so much he was afraid that he will lose him, and all of this will be lost as well. 

His anxiety was calming down just a little bit to make some space for incoming sadness. He was sorry, but he wouldn’t lie, he would definitely do those things again. Yeah, maybe he could have thought of better ways. But there was nothing, _nothing_ in this world he wouldn’t do for her. 

He stood up and as always put his backpack on. There was nothing he could do if this one thing was lost. He decided to wake Seungmin up right away, now they didn’t have time to spare. 

He got closer and looked at the sleeping man just for a few seconds. It was another thing that he unconsciously added to the list of his habits. He couldn't help staring at his soft features every time he was near him. It was giving him calmness, he could feel truly calm only when Seungmin was around. He was like a cure for his anxiety which had been tormenting his mind for years. Every time he wanted to touch his skin to see if the sparkles were still there. But this would make Seungmin anxious instead so Hyunjin couldn't do it. Seungmin did nothing to deserve this feeling. 

He didn’t deserve some other things that Hyunjin had given to him as well.

He shook his shoulder delicately.

“Wake up.” He whispered. 

A long and loud groan was what answered him, and Hyunjin smiled. Another firm point of the morning. 

“Come on.” He added quietly. “It’s time to go.” 

  
  


***

  
  


“Have you ever hunted?” Seungmin asked with a mouth full of… something. That was quite a new thing which for some reason reminded Hyunjin of smoked fish. Seungmin said it was good, but Hyunjin actually suspected there was something wrong with his tongue. He was eating it tearing it into smaller parts first, and the imagination of the smoked fish was even stronger in Hyunjin’s head. He had no idea that the world had created so many evil plants.

“Hm?” He wasn’t sure what Seungmin meant.

“You know, after Hunter School. Did you actually hunt witches?” He didn’t look interested, keeping his eyes on his food. Hyunjin wasn’t sad about it though, he looked way more comfortable to talk to him that he used to at first. He was very happy about it. On the other hand, he missed his eyes. 

“Ah yes, I was a Hunter.” He answered. Seungmin will probably hate him after the confirmation that Hyunjin did give up hunting. If he never hunted, there would be no treason at least. 

“A good one?” Seungmin asked again as if nothing happened. Maybe he actually couldn’t hate him more. 

Hyunjin smiled at him again. 

“Not as good as you.” He said. 

Seungmin laughed quietly, and Hyunjin cherished the moment. 

“You don’t know if I was good,” Seungmin said, even though he was most likely aware it wasn’t true. 

“People know your name.” He shrugged. “If they talk about you, you must be good.” 

“They don’t talk about you?” Seungmin asked teasingly. 

Hyunjin winced unwillingly. 

“They do.” He said, and maybe it sounded a little colder than he intended. Brief memories went through his head. He remembered people whispering when he was crossing the roads. He remembered the hostile looks, he remembered how they were throwing insults at him. Now he watched Seungmin’s smile drop, and it was another thing that hurt him. He just hoped he won’t ask anything else. 

Seungmin just nodded and didn’t ask a single question after. Hyunjin was thankful. What he had said before was true, Seungmin truly couldn’t understand people. But he was getting better at understanding Hyunjin. Or maybe he started caring for Hyunjin’s feelings more. 

It was stupid of Hyunjin to hope for that, but he still did. For some reason he wished to be accepted by him, he wished Seungmin could welcome the person that he is and reject the things that he first thought about him.

“I can imagine,” Seungmin said to brighten up the mood. “Hwang the Great.” He joked with the smile back on his face. 

“Seungmin...” He didn’t even know why he decided to speak up. 

Seungmin looked up at him in question. Hyunjin liked it, he liked when he was giving him his full attention and when his eyes were fixed on him. Hyunjin felt like Seungmin enjoyed watching his face as well.

“My name is Hyunjin.” 

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin would expect everything. He would expect random witches to jump on them from behind the trees. That was the first thing that was coming to his mind when he thought about witches chasing them. That wasn’t a very probable scenario, but he wasn’t giving it too many thoughts. He would expect the whole clan to attack them, this one was more likely to happen, but Seungmin didn’t enjoy imagining it.

What he didn’t expect though, was the clan sending a Traitor, a whole Silver-Blooded to be added. 

And even if he should have, he didn’t expect him to find them so fast.

Hwang… Hyunjin was always waking him up, but he was never harsh. He was always doing it gently, giving him time to adjust, to get ready to face the day. When he got roughly shook, he had more than one or two signals that something was wrong. 

“Get up.” He said. “Quickly.” 

Seungmin did as he said, skipping his usual morning whining. He knew it was a special situation in some way, but it still wasn’t easy to be in his full mental and physical abilities a few seconds after you woke up. He rubbed his eyes. 

“What is happening?” Seungmin asked weakly.

Hyunjin stared at him for a few seconds before he decided to answer. There was a genuine concern on his face, and somehow his eyes looked even bigger. Seungmin thought that now he could describe him as delicate. Fragile. He was welcoming all the new perspectives in which he could see Hyunjin eagerly. 

“There’s a dragon somewhere near. A dragon which Nocturne is familiar with so it must be one of the clan’s guys.” He furrowed his eyebrows, and Seungmin felt like Hyunjin’s concern was also about him. “He’ll be there soon.” 

Seungmin just accepted his words, there was not much to say. If there was only one dragon involved then maybe they still stood a chance. Nocturne wasn’t at his best state, but it wasn’t that bad now, so maybe he will be able to defend himself. The situation wasn’t that horrible, but he was worried. Then he realised that in fact the only ones in danger there were Hyunjin and maybe Nocturne. Hyunjin did something bad, Hyunjin had troubles and the clan probably had no idea about Seungmin’s existence.

The realisation didn’t make him calm at all. 

Hyunjin took off his backpack quickly yet hesitantly and handed it to Seungmin.

“Here.” He said. Seungmin’s eyes grew a little bigger. He hesitated to take it. “Do not open it, okay? Promise me.” 

Seungmin thought about it for a second. Eventually, he will get to know, right? He was able to sit his curious ass down and just wait. Right? 

He was looking down at the backpack, pure temptation, and finally nodded. 

Hyunjin quickly lifted his chin to make him meet his eyes, it was so sudden Seungmin almost jumped. 

“Promise.” He said firmly. 

Seungmin couldn’t even answer for a few seconds. He kept staring in his eyes. It was dominant again, like during the first days of their… relation? It was almost the same, but now Seungmin didn’t feel even a trace of fear.

“I promise.” He said quietly. 

Hyunjin decided it was enough and let go of his face. He got up on his feet from previous crouching and headed to the opposite direction. Seungmin knew Hyunjin won’t let him go with him, but it felt so wrong to let him go by himself. He watched him going until he couldn’t help himself and run those few steps after him. He grabbed his hand and again felt the sparkles going through his body, but this time it didn’t feel bad. Maybe Seungmin started to accept the fact that for some reason the universe decided to bond them. He didn’t know why, he had no idea why he started welcoming Hyunjin in his life, in his head. 

Hyunjin stared at their hands for a while until he looked at Seungmin again in question. 

“Don’t hurt the dragon.” He said. “Please.” Seungmin probably looked like he was begging for his own life, but in this case, he didn’t mind. 

Hyunjin again just kept looking at him for some time, it looked like it was hard for him to accept what Seungmin wanted from him. Eventually, he nodded, and Seungmin almost sighed in relief.

Then he disconnected their hands and walked away.

Seungmin immediately missed the feeling. His hands were soft and warm and didn’t remind him of the ones that gave him pain. He felt like Malgora, but at the same time, he felt so different. He couldn’t understand any of it. 

Was he falling for the devil? 

  
  


***

  
  


Hyunjin was sitting on Nocturne’s back, the dragon was shifting uncomfortably under his body, half lying, half standing. Hyunjin knew he didn’t like him touching his freshly healed wound, but there was also no other choice for him. He was waiting. The Traitor was coming ready to attack him, and sure he’ll have the element of surprise, but he was wrong. Hyunjin was ready.

He winced remembering what Seungmin had asked him to do, or rather not to do. Will he be able to keep that promise? He had no sword, only an old dagger. In this situation, the first thing that was coming to his mind was defeating the Traitor by defeating his dragon. But if he does hurt him, that would mean losing the trust that Seungmin has for him if he even managed to make him have any. And most importantly - it would hurt Seungmin. He didn’t know why, but he was even more scared of doing that. Logically thinking he should care only about the trust because without it, he would be less willing to cooperate and that should be the only important thing for Hyunjin. But he still cared about Seungmin’s feelings. Maybe he didn’t want to repeat his old sins. 

Nocturne growled quietly, and Hyunjin caressed his scales before he made him fly into the air. Up there he was already able to spot the hostile dragon in the distance and he focused his eyes on it to identify the creature. He had to wait a little bit more until his eyes were able to recognise the dark red shade of its scales.

It was Kane. His dragon was beautiful, a lot of people admired him for his shade and majesty. But after spending some more time in his company, they would mock him for being kind of clumsy for a beast. His name was Maroon, and Hyunjin rolled his eyes, remembering Seungmin mocking _his_ name choices. 

He was getting closer and closer, and he noticed that he wasn’t nervous anymore. The adrenaline gave him strength, and he was surprisingly comfortable for a person fighting for his own life.

He made Nocturne fly higher when he was right in front of Maroon and surprised him missing the fire breath that the dragon aimed at him. The fire touched Nocturne’s belly, but it couldn’t do much harm to him opposite to Hyunjin. He wanted Nocturne to attack the rider with his claws, but he missed him, so the whole motion was useless. It made them land behind Maroon, and Nocturne was a powerful dragon, but his size and age caused him to be less flexible and changing the direction in the air was taking him a little bit more than smaller dragons. In other circumstances, he would probably manage to scratch the other dragon at least, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t hurt the dragon.

He decided right away to make a bigger circle while turning around so Nocturne would gain space. He had to check the situation. He was thinking about risking jumping on the other dragon and attacking Kane from his back. Of course Maroon wouldn’t like him there, so the idea wasn’t the greatest. 

Kane expected him to do the same trick in their next ‘meeting’, so he lifted his dragon, but Hyunjin just moved to the side and avoided the dumbass.

_Come on, let me take a look at you._

He kept turning Nocturne in big circles. It’s not like he had to hurry, he was taking his time. Maybe Nocturne was weaker than usual, but he still was able to spend more time in the air than Maroon. Hyunjin knew the dragon well, he used to fight by his side. 

In the next encounter, he made Nocturne flight above, delicately to the side. Hyunjin moved around at Nocturne’s body risking falling down just to see Kane. He bet he was extremely irritated with Hyunjin avoiding the confrontation. He smiled to himself.

_Sorry dude, I don’t wanna scratch my dragon._

The fight was so different when he had to avoid getting Maroon wounds. Hyunjin finally spotted Kane on the back of the beast, and as usual, he had his sword in the sheath on his back. So the chance of defeating him this way was too small to be worth it. Maybe that was for the better, but Hyunjin still was disappointed.

Getting ready for the next clash, he decided on a really stupid idea.

“Fuck it.” He said ready to face the dragon again. He was flying at a normal pace looking like he was finally ready for the direct encounter. He was getting close, so close that Maroon was almost able to reach Nocturne, but when Kane and his dragon were sure of it, and Maroon lifted the front of his body to attack them, he made Nocturne fly under him fastly. Maroon’s claws must have reached Nocturne’s wings, and he hoped he didn’t tear them too much. In the last second of flying under him, Nocturne soaked his teeth in Maroon’s tail, exactly as Hyunjin wanted. Then he made Nocturne fly upright flipping poor Maroon before letting go of him. Hyunjin turned his head around to see Kane falling down and his dragon going down right after him. 

Hyunjin flinched. 

_Kane won’t like this landing._

  
  


***

Seungmin was getting impatient. He knew that if he wanted to, he would be able to watch the fight, the thing was that he didn’t actually want to see that. Besides that, he knew he was carrying something important so he couldn’t really risk getting himself exposed, even if the chance was pretty small. On the other hand, shouldn’t he be aware when to start running if Hyunjin loses? 

No, it couldn’t happen. 

He was nervous, his hands were covered in sweat. At this point, he wasn’t even that surprised that his mind made him stand on Hyunjin’s side. His experiences were telling him to just accept whatever was going around him or inside of his head. 

He put his head in his hands and started rubbing his face. At the time when he decided to go after Hyunjin, to reach whatever point he was able to see him, he heard a horrific dragon’s roar coming from the forest. 

_Oh no._

He was sure it wasn’t Nocturne, he could feel that. As long as he decided to ignore that fact, he was bonded with him, he would know. But it meant that some dragon was hurt. He didn’t keep the promise. 

Seungmin felt burning of his eyes. 

  
  


***

  
  


Hyunjin was tired. Maybe the struggle was mostly Nocturne’s, but it did exhaust him mentally. Hyunjin never even liked Kane. He was a true Traitor, he wasn’t someone like him, and he wasn’t someone like Minho. He didn’t like him, but after so much time of fighting together, he didn’t feel so good to make his own dragon crush his body. Just one more reason why he was going to hell. 

After checking on Nocturne’s wings and discovering there was nothing to worry about he headed back to Seungmin. He wanted to see him, he really wanted to have him close. 

When he finally got to him, Hyunjin’s heart sank, seeing him sitting on the ground with tears on his cheeks, which looked like they were drying off already. 

“Hey.” He said, sitting by his side. “It’s okay now, why are you crying?” 

Seungmin looked at him and sniffed.

“The dragon...” He answered.

Hyunjin tilted his head in question. Then it got to him how Seungmin must have misinterpreted the situation. His eyes were a bit swollen, and Hyunjin fought the urge to move the hair from his forehead. He was such a crybaby.

“The dragon is fine.” He said delicately, careful not to hurt his feelings more. “He had a tough landing, but he will be fine.” He made a small pause, thinking if he should say it aloud. “He was roaring ‘cause his rider is dead.”

Seungmin looked at him surprised then nodded wiping off one of his cheeks.

“Thank you.” He said, and Hyunjin felt warm. Seungmin was able to sincerely thank him, and even if there was no need to thank, he felt so happy that he did. 

He smiled at him, stood up and gave him his hand to help him get up as well. Seungmin didn’t hesitate to touch his skin, and that was another good sign. 

He took the backpack from him in silence, they both knew it was the time to go again. Seungmin was taking walking better already. He was barely limping now, it was happening only after few hours of march, and Hyunjin was always saying it’s time for a break soon after noticing it. He was sorry for him, but he couldn’t let him feel like he was worse in any way. Hyunjin was sure that Seungmin was able to achieve so much more. The problem was that Seungmin himself didn’t believe that. Not yet. 

“Oh fuck.” Hyunjin suddenly said, hiding his face in his hands in despair.

“What?” Seungmin asked, taken aback. 

“I totally forgot this guy was Minho’s favourite as well.” 

  
  


***

  
  


He couldn’t feel the witch’s teeth anymore, but it wasn’t a relief at all, as he actually couldn’t feel anything. He would expect the pain to be there, but there was nothing he was familiar with. 

He didn’t even feel the grief when Malgora was going down. At the back of his head, he heard her roar again even though the fall itself was silent. 

When they hit the ground, he felt that he couldn’t take a breath, and everything went dark.

There was a whistle slowly fading in his ears when he opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, but he could tell there was a person standing above him. 

The dark figure was becoming clear. His face was pretty, but it was covered in blood. 

His hair was too long. 

The way he looked at him was as dark as everything else counting his soul. Those eyes were fixed on Seungmin when he smiled, and a few blood drops left his cheek to hit the ground. 

  
  


***

  
  


Maybe Seungmin was just thinking about Hyunjin too much. Maybe it was nothing more, he had nothing else to do so he just kept circling around the idea that Minho had infected him with. He didn’t think much about Hyunjin liking him actually. He thought it wasn’t that bad, he was sure that his reasons were more than that since he had made a discovery about what it could be. If Hyunjin was gay and he had feelings for Seungmin he could deal with it eventually, he could make Hyunjin stop. 

He was thinking about himself now. He was thinking about _his_ feelings towards Hyunjin as they didn’t seem to be normal. Seungmin didn’t think he could fall for Hyunjin, Hyunjin was a guy, and Seungmin liked girls. He was with Nada almost whole his life, so he had never considered being attracted to a man. But if it wasn’t an attraction, what was it? 

A bond maybe. The three of them, Seungmin, Hyunjin and Nocturne were bonded, but Seungmin still didn’t know how he was going to break it to Hyunjin. No one knew as well as Seungmin that bonds could be powerful, so maybe he had to accept that their bond made him feel like that. 

But thinking about it more, he must have bonded with Hyunjin when he was still in his cell, the first time their skin touched he felt those sparkles. They bonded, and Seungmin still was able to hate him for so long, and now he couldn’t. He couldn’t hate him anymore, and he had no idea when he even stopped. Hyunjin was his now, somehow he started accepting it and somehow it didn’t feel bad at all. He knew it wasn’t something that just appeared in his brain ‘cause he was oppressed for days, and his mind didn’t know how else to cope with it. Even if he didn’t like to admit that, Hyunjin never actually felt like an oppressor. For a long time, Seungmin thought of him as one, but he never _felt_ like it was true. 

He was being stupid. All this time he was stupid finding himself excuses and refusing to believe in one simple fact - he wanted to stay. It was obvious that Hyunjin wouldn’t hurt him even if he caught him trying to escape, but Seungmin had never even taken a chance, and the chances were given to him so many times. He was telling himself that it wasn’t worth it, but a bitter fact was becoming clearer to him now. Since the beginning, Hyunjin fascinated him. Since he had stood in front of him for the first time, covered in his dark aura and ready to do everything without a rise of his heart rate, Seungmin was intrigued. He couldn’t even see how he was gladly obeying him, how greedily he was accepting his demands, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. His life was dry and pointless, everything was dim, but not him. Nothing excited Seungmin, but Hyunjin did. For the first time he truly felt something and not considering whether it was good or bad, he followed. 

How powerful Hyunjin was if he could change Seungmin’s dreams? 

Seungmin was keeping his thoughts on Hyunjin since he woke up, in the middle of the night frightened by a sudden change, by a signal that his mind gave to him, but he couldn’t fully understand. Then he turned his eyes to him, and he could clearly see his face. The fire was still there, but Hyunjin was deeply asleep. He must have been really tired, his face was a bit swollen, but it didn’t make him any less pretty.

Seungmin would probably stare till morning if he didn’t hear a branch cracking in the distance. 

Instantly he lifted his head and looked to the direction of the sound. He had nothing but the silver dagger that he got from Hyunjin, so he just grabbed it and slowly got up. He was moving like a cat, cautiously and silently, his ankle was giving him a lot of pain not used to that at all, but he ignored it utterly, as he tried to follow whatever was hidden in the wood.

The creature must have got startled when Seungmin woke up ‘cause it seemed to be retreating. Did it plan to kill them in their sleep? 

Seungmin might’ve been out of business, but he still had silver blood running in his veins. He could see much better than any average person, so even in the middle of the night, he could see a witch hiding between the trees a few meters away from him. 

He tried to make small steps, but when he saw the witch moving back, he started running. The witch swung her hand and shot a power bullet at Seungmin. That was a killer one, that was one which could probably turn him into ashes at the place he was standing, or rather running if he wasn’t quick enough to get down. His knees slid across the bedding of the forest, but Seungmin ignored the pain of the torn skin as he got up right away and continued running. 

He couldn’t let himself be touched. The witch was powerful, and even a single touch of her skin could cost Seungmin his life. When he got to her, he didn’t attack from the front, but he got to the side and on his knees again harassing his fresh bruises. The move was quick, the witch couldn’t even react when Seungmin pierced her foot with the dagger and rolled to the back, leaning on his arms, looking like a wolf ready to jump on her again. The witch was obviously blinded by pain. She faced Seungmin and screamed at him frightfully showing sharp fangs, trying to scare him off. Seungmin screamed back. 

She rose both her hands slowly, and unnatural roots sharp like spears rose from the ground. Luckily Seungmin was quick enough again, and only one managed to reach him and scratch his shoulder. The witch tried to get to him, but her moves were rapid and awkward because of the wounded foot. Seungmin again attacked from below and cut the knee of her second leg. She pierced the air with her scream again, but this time with a different cause and this time she fell on her knees. Seungmin wasted no time when he cut her throat with the dagger with one single motion. The black blood splashed his face.

The witch fell to the ground completely, and Seungmin took only a few breaths when he rolled her on her back and cut her chest. He spread the ribs and tore out the heart, which he unhesitantly pinned to the tree with his dagger.

Pierced by silver. Will never come back. 

Even his eyelashes were dripping with blood. His face and his hands were entirely covered in black, whereas his knees and his shoulder were leaking silver. He rested his forehead next to the heart he left at the tree and contemplated for a few minutes until he pulled out the dagger and let the heart fall to the ground. He left it there when he headed back with the dagger in his hand. 

When he came back, Hyunjin was awake. He looked at him flabbergasted, but he didn’t say a word when Seungmin just lay down and fell asleep with a duvet made of black and silver. 

  
  


***

  
  


The witch’s teeth felt so good on his ankle, and he felt a loss when she fell off. Why did he start kicking?

Their fell was silent, and he didn’t mind it coming even if he knew he was going to miss something. He didn’t even know what it was. 

They hit the ground, and everything went dark. Then he could finally breathe. 

There was a whistle slowly fading in his ears when he opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, but he could tell there was a person standing above him. 

The dark figure was becoming clear. 

The way he looked at him was as dark as everything else counting his soul. Few blood drops left his cheek and hit the ground when he smiled, and Seungmin couldn’t feel more amazed by how beautiful his own face was when it was covered in blood. 

  
  


***

  
  


Hyunjin woke him up by putting his hand on his cheek. It was unusual, but the delicate gesture made Seungmin calm, and he thought maybe that was actually Hyunjin's intention. He opened his eyes and looked at Hyunjin’s face above him, he was afraid that he will see a trace of reproach in him, but there was nothing beside kindness. He was glad that Hyunjin didn’t feel disgusted while touching his skin with black dried on it. 

Hyunjin took his hand away, and Seungmin felt a loss which he was ready to complain about, but it got stopped before it started when Hyunjin grabbed his hand instead. He helped him get up without a word, and then Seungmin noticed that he was already loaded with all the stuff they had. Hyunjin didn’t even give a single bag to him, he was ready to carry everything, making every effort to make Seungmin feel comfortable. 

He started leading him through the forest not letting go of his hand, and not interrupting the silence. Thinking about it, it was weird, but it didn’t feel awkward. Seungmin liked when Hyunjin was holding his hand, he liked how it was making him feel so just that was enough for him. He barely noticed how the landscape was changing around them. The forest was becoming less and less dense until there were no trees at all. Maybe half an hour had passed when they finally reached a river. 

Hyunjin stopped to put all the bags on the ground, he let go even of the backpack. Seungmin was standing there motionless, waiting until he was done. Then he grabbed his hands again, both this time and going backwards, he led him to the river. 

The water reached Seungmin’s chest. They didn’t undress, but Seungmin thought the purpose was for the blood to leave his clothes as well. Silver blood was usually giving up easily at the contact with water, black was leaving traces but not as significant as red. 

Hyunjin gently helped Seungmin wash his face and his hair. 

“Why did Nocturne let her come so close?” Seungmin asked quietly. “Did he not feel her?”

“He did,” Hyunjin answered completely ignoring the first question. 

“Why, then?” Seungmin didn’t give up. 

“He didn’t see her as a danger.” 

“What?” Seungmin asked, but he was careful not to raise his voice. Or maybe he was just too tired to do that. “She was so powerful.”

“But you were there,” Hyunjin answered unhesitantly, as it was so obvious. 

Seungmin snorted weakly.

“As if I could do anything.” 

Hyunjin didn’t answer, he just looked at him as if he wanted to say “look how ridiculous you’re being right now”. And well, maybe Seungmin was being ridiculous indeed. He did something, but it was just one time. He was lucky. 

Hyunjin left him there and came out of the river to wait for him at the riverbank. Seungmin finished washing up and joined him. 

“When they attack again… What will we do?” He couldn’t hide his fear. He was sitting right next to Hyunjin, he looked at his hands and felt the need to brush his fingers. 

“They won’t.” His voice was reassuring. “Not for some time at least.” 

They were looking at each other for some time, but Hyunjin knew he was going to ask more eventually, so he just continued talking. 

“I know how they work. They sent an assassin, then a Traitor and a witch.” He took a pause probably just to think of how much he should let Seungmin know. “You know how normal clans work, the Mother finds new creatures, and she is able to make very basic plans, but it’s not much. With Traitors, it changes a little bit. The Mother is in a position of power, but she does not lead… The Traitors choose their leader, and he actually rules in the clan.”

“Who’s their leader?” Seungmin asked.

“Me.”

Seungmin gulped. He imagined Hyunjin as a leader of the witch clan, but surprisingly he didn’t feel hatred or anything like that. Seungmin hated witches and their clans. He hated those disgusting creatures, their attacks, everything that was related to them. But he didn’t hate Hyunjin. 

The fact that Seungmin didn’t feel any negative emotions when he thought of Hyunjin controlling those horrible attacks wouldn’t be even that surprising. He just didn’t expect to feel something else.

Want.

“So since you left… They don’t have a leader?” Seungmin asked hesitantly ignoring his own emotions. 

Hyunjin shook his head. 

“They’re at the power struggle.” Hyunjin stopped to think for a bit. “I’m not sure who could win. They usually choose someone who’s the most respected by the clan. Someone aggressive and vile, usually they choose dreadfulness before intelligence.” He grimaced while saying this. He probably didn’t want to remind Seungmin of this side of him. He didn’t know that Seungmin didn’t care anymore. “Minho would stand a chance, by they didn’t trust him. He was too unpredictable.”

Seungmin nodded in understanding. 

“He left anyway, and Kane is dead, so I can’t predict their choice… I think they’re lost too so they’ll probably be fighting for some time before they attack. And when they do… they’ll do it all together.”

Seungmin’s heart stopped. He doubted if they could survive single attacks, but the whole clan? There was only two of them. Three counting Nocturne and maybe he was outstanding but how could they defeat a whole fucking clan? What could help them? The bond?

“Hyunjin…” He spoke up fearfully. “I bonded with Nocturne.”

“What? No, you didn’t”

“I did.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Hyunjin!” He couldn’t believe how stubborn he was. “He feels like Malgora… He feels like you.” It wasn’t true, not all of that. The feeling was similar, but with Hyunjin… it was stronger. 

“It’s impossible,” Hyunjin answered in disbelief. He looked like he was close to panicking, but Seungmin didn’t want to let that happen. The face that Hyunjin wanted to show him was fearless, but Seungmin knew there was more than that. 

“I know.”

“Prove it.” He said. Seungmin wasn’t mad at him for doubting him, though. He knew he was just searching for any type of a safe zone. 

“How?” Seungmin wanted to help him, he wanted to soothe his anxiety, but he didn’t know how to. He was usually the one in need of help. 

“Call him,” Hyunjin said as if he just made a discovery.

“Huh?” 

“Call him here. Show me.” Hyunjin said. He obviously hoped what Seungmin had said wasn’t true. He hoped that Seungmin would fail. To be honest, Seungmin hoped for that too.

“Okay.” He nodded. “I’ll try.”

He moved away from Hyunjin, wanting to focus. So much time had passed since he last sent a signal to a dragon. Was he still able to do that? You couldn’t lose this ability, right?

Usually sending a signal was easy, natural. But he just bonded with Nocturne, he wasn’t even sure if he really did. He used his whole focus to summon the beast. 

Time was passing, and Hyunjin was losing patience with every second. Not more than three minutes after he spoke again.

“See, he didn’t-”

He got interrupted by a sound of massive wings and landing of the beast behind them right after that. They both turned away just to witness Nocturne’s horrific roar. 

_Oh my God._

It was true. Seungmin not only bonded with another dragon but also with its rider. He looked to the side to see Hyunjin’s face. He was shocked, but luckily he didn’t panic. Seungmin was afraid of that because if he did, Seungmin wouldn’t know how to deal with that. 

Hyunjin was breathing deeply, trying to make himself calm.

“Let’s go.” He just said simply and started gathering their things. 

Seungmin helped him and then followed. It Hyunjin didn’t want to talk about it, it was better not to try. 

  
  


***

  
  


The road was passing in silence again, but this time it _was_ awkward. At least at first. Seungmin gave Hyunjin time to adjust to the situation. Seungmin himself didn’t feel comfortable in it, but he had to stay calm for once at least. This time he needed to be calm for Hyunjin. 

The landscape changed again. They were crossing something that Seungmin would call a ravine, probably a dried river bank. Seungmin didn’t feel safe, but it wasn’t related to the area. It was another feeling that he welcomed, not gladly but with peace, giving himself allowance to actually feel it - he was afraid he will lose Hyunjin. 

He fully accepted that he needed him. He began to realise that he wanted him. 

Even though it was scary, it felt amazing. 

He was afraid of Hyunjin losing his trust towards him, but he tried to tell himself that Hyunjin wasn’t a person like that.

He decided to get a confirmation. 

“Hyunjin…” His voice was quiet. “ Are you mad at me?”

Hyunjin looked at him, and Seungmin thought that he will hear ‘yes’. But then Hyunjin soothed his nervousness when he smiled at him weakly, again showing him kindness and maybe fondness. 

“No…” He answered. “I’m just confused.”

Seungmin nodded. 

“I’m confused too.” He said just to point out that they were in a similar place. 

For some time they left it like this, but after a few minutes, Hyunjin was the one to break the silence. 

“You know… I’ve been excited to tell you…” He made a pause to give him a smile. “We will be there tomorrow.”

Oh. Seungmin got so used to days going just like that, that he didn't mind it anymore. He even stopped whining about walking. He liked having Hyunjin all the time by his side. When they reach the place, what will change?

“You’re not happy,” Hyunjin said, and Seungmin felt bad for disappointing him. That wasn’t what he wanted, he just wished to spend more time with him. It was childish of him, but he couldn’t help it.

He looked at Hyunjin searching for words, for a good way to explain how he felt. He couldn’t find any. 

“You still don’t trust me,” Hyunjin said, and there was even more disappointment in his words now.

“I do!” Seungmin answered instantly, and Hyunjin looked at him attentively. Seungmin felt embarrassed for saying it this way, but at least Hyunjin knew how he felt now. He wanted him to know how his attitude had changed, how Seungmin changed the way he looked at Hyunjin. He wanted him to know about other his feelings as well, not only the trust.

Hyunjin nodded. The silence came again, and Hyunjin was the one to break it.

“Wait…” He said. “You said Nocturne feels like me.”

Seungmin looked at him. He felt ashamed that he actually said that. It was true though, at least some part of it. He couldn’t help the way he was feeling, but he thought that he should try to fight the embarrassment. He liked Hyunjin. He would never think that something like this could happen, but now when it did, he didn’t want it to stop. He wanted all of this. He wanted Hyunjin to know, he wanted Hyunjin to be his. It happened so quickly since he had heard Minho’s words and was scared of Hyunjin’s feelings, to the point when he felt the same and wanted Hyunjin to know. 

He didn’t feel like Nocturne. He felt so much better.

“You’re bonded with Nocturne…” Hyunjin continued. “So are you bonded with me?”

Hyunjin asked, and it made Seungmin breathe heavier. 

_I am._

“I guess so?” Seungmin said simply as if he wasn’t thinking about it all the time, as if he wasn’t sure of it. 

“Then you should be able to send signals to me.” 

Seungmin’s eyes grew bigger. He had never thought about it before. It was obvious, but it hadn’t crossed his mind. Was he really connected with Hyunjin in this way?

If he was bonded with Hyunjin in the exact same way in which riders bond with dragons, why had he never felt his calling? Had he felt Nocturne in the first place?

What he accepted as simple pain of his mark must have been Nocturne. He just realised that Nocturne appeared in his life so long time ago, but he ignored it. 

Was the calling coming also from Hyunjin?

“Show me your mark,” Seungmin said.

Hyunjin was surprised, but he did as Seungmin asked him to instantly. He rose the sleeve of his jacket and of his shirt, and he showed his wrist to Seungmin. 

Seungmin felt amazed by how well it matched both Hyunjin and Nocturne. It was a big dragon skull, but as much as it was beautiful, it didn’t give Seungmin any hint. He looked at his own mark even though he knew it by heart. The two small dragons didn’t match in any way to Hyunjin’s skull.

Seungmin’s mark made sense. He had never thought that the fact that he was carrying two dragons on his wrist had any meaning. But Hyunjin’s related to Nocturne and Nocturne only. 

“Okay, you know…” Seungmin started, his voice was trembling, but he wasn’t sure why. “I’ll try.” 

Hyunjin nodded and stood ready and focused on taking the signal from Seungmin. Seungmin wasn’t sure what he could demand from him. He wasn’t far away so he couldn’t summon him, he couldn’t make him fly as well. How will Hyunjin perceive it? Not a person ever experienced something like this. If he tries to send a signal, will he give Hyunjin an entry to his thoughts? 

He had no other solution than to try, so he focused on creating the thought and sending it to Hyunjin. 

‘Come closer.’ 

Simple. He sent this demand to him and observed the moment when Hyunjin got shocked.

“You…” Hyunjin started hesitantly. “You want me to come closer.” 

Seungmin opened his eyes a bit wider as well and nodded. So it worked. They made a bond, human-human bond, probably the only one on this fucking planet. 

He watched Hyunjin getting stressed again, but he couldn’t blame him for it. 

“Okay,” Seungmin said. “Okay, it’s okay.” He wasn’t sure if he was calming Hyunjin down or if he was trying to calm himself. 

“Let’s try the other way.” He proposed, and Hyunjin forced himself to focus again.

Seungmin waited for the signal to come, curious how it would feel. Will he just hear Hyunjin’s voice in his head? Will he just simply _know_ what to do? 

He waited and waited, but the signal didn’t come. 

Hyunjin looked at him in question. 

“And?” He asked. 

Seungmin shook his head for some reason feeling sorry. 

He was afraid that Hyunjin will panic, he seemed to be close to that state again before, so this is what Seungmin expected. Instead, Hyunjin seemed to be getting angry. A long time had passed since he last saw Hyunjin like that. 

“So what…” He yelled and got Seungmin startled. “You can send me a signal, and I can’t do the same?! What am I to you, then? Your fucking dragon?!”

“No, Hyunjin-” Seungmin wanted to calm him down, but he had no idea how he could do it. Hyunjin didn’t even give him a chance.

“No? Then what? Maybe you’ll tell me.” 

“I don’t know!” Seungmin was getting angry too. He felt like this was what Hyunjin actually tried to accomplish. “I didn’t do it!”

“It started with you!”

“How dare you fucking say this?! You fucking made me a hostage! You!” He yelled and pointed his finger right at Hyunjin’s chest.

“Should I have let you die there?! Should I have left you where you were lying on the ground?! Should I-”

“Stop it!” He yelled and pushed Hyunijn to the side of the ravine, he kept his hands on Hyunjins shoulders. “Stop it.”

He looked at Hyunjin’s face and felt like his rage went down when Seungmin got so close to him. Seungmin’s gaze went from his eyes to his plump lips, and he couldn’t stop himself from imagining how those lips could taste. He was still breathing harshly due to emotions, everything was happening quickly, and as quickly he connected their lips. 

Hyunjin was surprised at first, but after no more than two seconds, he kissed him back. It felt wonderful. So fucking wonderful. The sparkles that were usually going through his body when Hyunjin was touching his skin were so much intensive now. He wanted to melt into the kiss, he grabbed Hyunjin’s shoulders more greedily, he tried to get even closer to him. He wanted more and more, and Hyunjin seemed eager to give it to him until he suddenly pushed him away. He did it gently, but that fact didn’t make it any better. 

“Seungmin…” Hyunjin said apologetically. “No.”

“But… you like me.” His voice was quiet and trembling, he felt so lost and didn’t try to hide it.

“No,” Hyunjin said, and Seungmin felt his chest aching. “I don’t.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *vanishes*


	6. Chapter 6

“Are you sure?” Seungmin didn’t know why he was feeling anxious about it. A lot of time has passed since he last let himself be seen by so many people at once, but maybe it wasn’t it. If they were did something that pissed the witches off that much, should they really be announcing to the world where they were? 

Hyunjin shrugged.

“It’s the shortest way.” His voice was quiet, but Seungmin sensed that Hyunjin was the one who was even more nervous about doing it.

It was ridiculous. They wasted so many days on the way, would it really matter that much if they wasted another half an hour? 

He decided to agree anyway. For some reason, he felt like Hyunjin wanted to go exactly through the market. Seungmin wondered what Hyunjin wanted to accomplish by that, in his mind, it made no sense at all. 

He was stressed. He looked to the side in Hyunjin’s direction avoiding eye contact, subconsciously he looked at his hand. He felt the need to connect it with his, to look for support. If the yesterday didn’t happen, he definitely would. He looked down embarrassed, remembering what happened. 

How could he make such a mistake? 

The place wasn’t crowded, but it wasn’t empty as well. He could say that it was only thanks to the merchants doing their job there, beside them, he could spot only a few people in the distance. The first things Seungmin spotted were the stalls with vegetables. In other time it wouldn’t be anything special, but now he couldn’t help but marvel at the dirty carrots in the crates and the plump pumpkins. When was the last time he ate proper food?

The next thing he saw was the way people’s faces were changing when they spotted Hyunjin. Disinterest turning into fear mixed with hatred and maybe disgust.

_ They all know you.  _

Seungmin looked at Hyunjin again and noticed how uncomfortable he was. He kept his eyes on the ground, looking like he was ready to run away. 

_ You should have chosen the longer way, you moron.  _

Seungmin saw a woman hide behind a stall when she saw Hyunjin. He saw the merchants gathering to whisper, and those whispers definitely weren’t caused by admiration. Then he heard someone shout, and his blood froze. 

“Murderer!”

Seungmin turned to Hyunjin hastily.

“They know you’re a Traitor?” He whispered, but he couldn’t hide emotions in his voice. 

Hyunijn’s face wasn’t amused. He kept quiet, and this time Seungmin knew he shouldn’t expect him giving him any explanation. He looked at Seungmin briefly and caught his arm to lead him hurriedly to the end of the market. 

  
  


***

  
  


“So?” Seungmin asked several minutes after they finally left the place and Hyunjin didn’t look like he was planning to say anything. 

“So what?” Hyunjin asked dismissively.

Seungmin wondered if he was doing it on purpose. Was he acting like that because he was truly upset about the whole thing, or did he want to punish Seungmin for developing feelings for him? 

Did he hate Seungmin now?

“You didn’t tell me that your whole village hated you for being a Traitor.” He said with reproach. 

Hyunjin didn’t answer again, and it was making Seungmin more and more annoyed. It wasn’t anything unusual, but Seungmin thought they were over that already. Maybe he was wrong about that too.

“Were you bragging about it?” Seungmin ridiculed him. 

“They don’t know,” Hyunjin answered coldly. 

“What?” 

If they didn’t know, why did they react at Hyunjin like this? 

Hyunjin finally met Seungmin’s eyes. Seungmin missed it, but this time he didn’t enjoy it at all. His gaze was as cold as his tone, and Seungmin wondered if he really deserved it.

He needed to stop constantly thinking about him. He needed to erase Hyunjin from his head. 

“That’s not what they hate me for.”

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin didn’t dare to ask. He was naturally curious, but this time he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know. At least he tried to tell himself that he didn’t. 

Maybe he will get to know eventually, but if Hyunjin decides not to tell him, he’ll be fine with it. Hyunjin wasn’t his concern. At least he shouldn’t be. 

They stopped in front of an old house, but Seungmin didn’t know why. Hyunjin looked at him as if he tried to encourage him and Seungmin rose an eyebrow. 

“That’s it.” Said Hyunjin. 

“That’s what?”

Hyunjin looked crestfallen. 

“That’s… that’s our aim.”

“That’s a hovel,” Seungmin said disgustedly. It didn’t even look that bad, to be fair. He just couldn’t believe they were fighting for their lives just to reach this place. What could they even accomplish there? What  _ should  _ they accomplish?

Hyunjin winced. His expression was similar to the one he made when Seungmin laughed at Nocturne’s name. Seungmin sensed danger. Did this place have a special meaning to him?

“Let’s just go inside.” 

  
  


***

  
  


Hyunjin walked into the building, and Seungmin followed. He was surprised that the place smelled somehow cosy, it wasn’t what Seungmin expected. Hyunjin passed the small corridor and turned left to another room. Seungmin went after him. 

The room turned out to be a kitchen, a small one with a table next to a wall and just a few worktops. Simple, but quite clean and organised. Now Seungmin was the one wincing. 

_ So I ridiculed his family house just like that, huh? _

He didn’t have much time to look around, though. He heard a person running inside from the door on the opposite side, and involuntarily he stepped back startled. 

“Jinnie!” A small girl cried out and ran straight into Hyunjin’s arms. Hyunjin hugged her tightly, they both looked very emotional, and Seungmin thought their hug would last forever. 

He was shocked, he was standing there like a stick, mouth agape, not understanding anything at all. Finally, their hug finished, and the girl stepped back to look at Seungmin. Then she turned her head to look at Hyunjin again. 

“You brought a boyfriend?” She asked. 

Seungmin felt himself blushing. 

“Yoonah!” Hyunjin reprimanded her instantly. “What did I tell you about eavesdropping locals?”

“You said that those old pricks lie about you.” She answered without losing any of her confidence.    
  


Hyunjin turned to Seungmin.

“I didn’t say that.” He said, caught on using those particular words to a kid. 

“He did,” Yoonah said and laughed at Hyunjin.    
  


Seungmin wasn’t sure what that meant. Did the girl hear some gossips about Hyunjin being gay? He called it lies, so did that mean he wasn’t into men after all? Seungmin felt embarrassed at the thought that he didn’t expect himself to like men as well, but it changed when he met Hyunjin. And he didn’t even like him back.

Hyunjin sighed helplessly. 

“This is Seungmin.” He said, and Yoonah looked at him. “Say hi you brat, he will help us.” 

Yoonah’s eyes grew bigger and she turned back to Hyunjin. 

“He will? He really agreed?” She shouted excited. 

Seungmin looked at Hyunjin and saw his face get a very uncomfortable expression at the word ‘agreed’. He didn’t know what to say, and Seungmin was sure he couldn’t tell a little girl how he made Seungmin agree. Hyunjin looked at him too, very briefly, abashed and not sure what Seungmin would say. 

“Yes.” Said Seungmin. Maybe the situation between them wasn’t the best, but he still wanted to help Hyunjin. Besides, the kid didn’t deserve to take revenge on her. “I really did.” He smiled at her weakly. 

Yoonah ran to him instantly and hugged him as well. Seungmin didn’t expect that at all, he was abashed.

“Thank you.” She whispered, and Seungmin felt stupid. The girl didn’t even reach his chest, so Seungmin was trapped in an adorable child-adult hug. He was standing there not sure what to do. He had no contact with kids, like ever. He had no younger siblings or cousins, he had no idea how to act around them. Luckily, Hyunjin saved him.

“Yoonah. Go to your room now, me and Seungmin have to talk.” 

“But Jinnie, I-” Hyunjin had to only look at her to stop her complains. “Yes, no buts.” She murmured pouting and headed in the direction she came from. 

Hyunjin sat down on a chair next to the old table, he put his backpack on the floor and pointed at the chair next to him. 

“Sit, Seungmin.” He said kindly. Seungmin felt that he was mad at Hyunjin, but he couldn’t do anything else than to listen. He felt like Hyunjin was dictating his life anyway.

Seungmin didn’t choose the chair that he pointed though, but the next one, leaving some distance between them. Hyunjin was surprised, but he didn’t comment on it, he just pulled back the one that was between then so he could see Seungmin better. 

“So…” He started, and Seungmin rolled his eyes at the awkwardness between them. He was hurt, but he was also tired. 

“So you have a daughter.” He said dismissively.

Hyunjin almost choked at his own saliva. 

“What?” He asked disbelieving and pointed his finger at the direction of the door witch which the girl has left the room. “She’s my sister! Didn’t you hear her calling me by my name?” He gasped. “Don’t you think that if I was her father, she would call me…  _ father _ ?”

Seungmin shrugged. 

“I don’t have much experience with that.”

Hyunjin rubbed his eyes distressed. 

“Okay, uhh…” He looked at Seungmin again hesitantly. “Where do I start?” 

“From the beginning.” Seungmin’s blank expression was probably driving Hyunjin insane. “Would be nice.”

“Umm yes… Okay.” Hyunjin said, and Seungmin finally felt stupid for making it harder for him. “You remember when I told you about my parents, right?” 

Seungmin nodded. 

“So yeah, when I was fifteen Yoonah was born. She was… My mom died four years later, she got sick, you know.” He smiled weakly. “So maybe I was her father in a way.” 

It was difficult for Seungmin to watch Hyunjin struggle with the story. He was sure that all that happened was still hard for him, but he pretended it wasn’t, just like Seungmin used to do. He just hid his pain deep inside of him, thinking it won’t hurt him anymore and letting it be slowly suffocating him. Hyunjin got Seungmin out of the same misery, and Seungmin wondered if he would be able to do the same for him.

At the same time, he wondered what it meant to Hyunjin to stay alone with a small kid just a year after he had finished his Hunter School. Did he give up hunting then? If he died on a mission, who would take care of the child? He must have struggled, but Seungmin didn’t believe he was able to give up hunting just like that. He still had to earn money to feed himself and the girl, he couldn’t just stop. How did he shuffle his responsibilities then? It hurt Seungmin when he realised he was completely alone then, he couldn’t even let himself suffer. When Seungmin’s tragedy happened, he still had Jisung and Nada at least. When he left, he had his uncle. He could let himself mourn, but he simply didn’t. Hyunjin couldn’t allow himself to deal with his emotions, he couldn’t afford such a luxury. 

“My sister is the closest person to me, you see.” He paused just for a moment gaining his courage. “And she’s Black-Blooded.”

Seungmin’s heart stopped. He was sure it was visible on his face, but he couldn’t help it, even if he didn’t want to make Hyunjin even more stressed. He saw a lot of witches in his life, and he killed all of them. Never had he seen a Black-Blooded before joining a clan. 

Okay, once. 

He gulped at the memory of the witch court he witnessed. He had nothing to do with exposing the future witch, but her screams when the fire kissed her body were coming back to him in his nightmares years after. He met a lot of Hunters who were attending witch courts just for fun, even back in his school days other boys were sneaking out to see ‘the show’ and Mentors were silently allowing it since it was a thing that Hunters were supposed to be interested in. It never was Seungmin’s thing, though. He decided to attend only once, just to see how it looked like. He remembered thinking that the witch deserved her fate anyway. The girl he saw there was maybe a year older than Yoonah. He wasn’t able to stay till the end, he remembered a few people yelling at him when he threw up out of emotions standing at the back of the crowd. He was terrified. 

He imagined Yoonah at the place where the other witch was standing.

“I’m… I’m sorry, Hyunjin.” Seungmin said and fought the desire to put his hand on the one that Hyunjin put on the table. “But I still don’t understand what brought you to the clan.” 

Hyunjin reached his backpack. He opened it, and Seungmin held his breath. Finally. 

“This.” He said and put a pile of old yellowed books on the table. 

_ Oh my God _ _. _

“Holy shit,” Seungmin muttered under his breath after a few seconds of just staring shocked. He wasn’t able to think about anything better than this. “Is this what I think it is?” 

Hyunjin nodded. 

“I thought you’ve noticed that the clan was powerful. I didn’t choose it without reason.” 

“I…” Seungmin thoughts turned into a mess. He extended his hand to touch the books but hesitated when he was close to doing so and finally resigned. “I thought it was just a legend.” 

Hyunjin shook his head.

“Protectors exist… And I think it can turn in our favour now.”

Seungmin wasn’t easy to believe in stories. Looking at himself now, he realised he should have been. Hunters liked to tell each other things that Seungmin used to think were fairy tales. He often heard about the clans called Protectors, they were supposed to protect old magic knowledge. Witches weren’t smart enough to decode it, but they could do as much as to understand the risk of the books getting into wrong hands. 

“Wait, I’ve never asked about the name of your clan.” He just realised his mistake. It was stupid of him, a Hunter should always know his enemy. Did he really stop considering himself a Hunter to this point?

“It’s the Mardh Clan.”

Mardh. Seungmin was sure he had heard this name before, he probably never had much interest in them. The clan was oppressing different area, and the one Seungmin worked in already had their own problems with witches.

Seungmin looked at the books again. He tried to sum up everything he learned so far and collect it into one story. 

“Yoonah is eleven, right? Who was taking care of her when you were gone?” 

“No one,” Hyunjin said, and he sounded sorry about it. “When I discovered she was Black-Blooded, I… I told everyone she’s dead.”

“Oh.”

“I took her childhood away, you know?” He said bitterly. “She could never play outside, she could never talk to anybody… She was so small… and I taught her how to steal, I taught her how to stay unnoticed… She was nine when I left. I was able to visit her from time to time, but beside… she was all alone.”

“Hey…” Seungmin started, feeling sorry for him. “You did it for her good… she had to stay alive when you were gone, you know that.”

Hyunjin nodded, but Seungmin sensed he wasn’t that sure of that. To be fair, he couldn’t be sure that his plan would work.

“Okay, so do I understand it correctly?” Seungmin asked. “You want to find a solution there?” He pointed at the stack of books. 

Hyunjin nodded, and Seungmin snorted disbelievingly.

“What is it?” Hyunjin asked. 

“You know… I thought that you were looking for me for some reason. That you wanted  _ me  _ to help… But you just needed someone who could read… What the fuck, Hyunjin? Don’t tell me that during all that time you never met a person who could do that instead of me.”

“It’s not like that.”

“No?” Seungmin was mad, but he remembered to control his voice. He didn’t want Yoonah to hear them and get scared. “Then what is it?”

Hyunjin hesitated to answer. It took him some time before he did.

“I admit I wasn’t looking for you specifically, just… someone. Between the people I…” He stopped, but Seungmin knew how he should call it. Tortured. Killed. “There were some who were able to read, but none of them was strong enough to do what I wanted them to do. No one had the willpower, no one was clever enough… I wasn’t looking for you, but I was lucky that I found you.”

Seungmin laughed bitterly. 

“Strong, you say? I guess you didn’t see me hobbling through that cell. You didn’t see me stumble, you didn’t see me lying on the ground… Luckily you could catch up on that later.”

“You were swaying in places where others would've already fallen,” Hyunjin said, and it hit Seungmin. Hyunjin made a long pause before he spoke again, but Seungmin didn’t dare to interrupt it. “You’re so focused on who you used to be that you forget who you still are. And maybe I didn’t know you before, but I don’t think you changed that much. You’re so powerful, Seungmin… I wish you could see that.”

  
  


*** 

  
  


“So this one is yours, or Yoonah’s?” Seungmin asked, standing at the entrance of the room in which the girl previously hid in. Now she was sitting cross-legged at the bed there, waiting patiently for her brother to finish showing Seungmin the house. 

“We share it,” Hyunjin answered. 

The room was more spacious than Seungmin had expected. Just as the kitchen it looked clean but very simple. Seungmin felt like even when Hyunjin’s mother was still alive, his family had to face much more problems than just his always drunk father.

“Come, I’ll show you the other one,” Hyunjin said after Seungmin took a look. He actually wondered if it was necessary. It’s not like he was moving in, not for a long time at least. Did Hyunjin just want to show him another part of his world? 

“There’s only two?” Seungmin said and then got scared that Hyunjin would misinterpret the question as rude. It wasn’t Seungmin’s aim to hurt him with it. 

“Yes, besides the lavatory and the attic.” Luckily Hyunjin didn’t get offended.

Seungmin realised that in fact, Hyunjin didn’t know normal life. Maybe Seungmin’s life wasn’t what you should consider normal as well, but Hyunjin opposite to him never knew the simple happiness. The more Seungmin knew him, the more he thought of him as a person who got deeply hurt by life. He understood his actions, and even when he tried, he couldn’t be mad at him anymore. Maybe he still should, but he couldn’t.

Hyunjin silently led Seungmin back through the kitchen to the corridor, and then opened the opposite door. This one was small and had different… energy than the rest of the house. It looked like no one entered it in years. He wouldn’t call it clean, it was dusty and full of spider’s webs. There was a plain white dress hanged on one of the handles of a big wardrobe standing in front of a bed. It looked like someone was still living there, and at the same time, it looked like only ghosts remained.

Seungmin looked at Hyunjin.

“Mom’s room,” Hyunjin said calmly. He pointed in the direction of the wardrobe. “She really liked that dress.” He was looking at it for a while before he spoke again. “Come, I’ll show you.”

Seungmin didn’t know why he wanted to show him the wardrobe, he didn’t dare to complain, though. He didn’t want Hyunjin to think that his memories were irrelevant, even if he was mad at him. Hyunjin didn’t want to show that, but he probably missed his mother a lot. Seungmin didn’t know that feeling. You couldn’t miss something you don’t know, at least that was what he thought. 

Hyunjin opened the wardrobe and showed him several dresses hanged there.

“Mom liked to look good, even when the times were tough.” He said with a slight smile, and Seungmin wondered if he ever blamed her for that. “I kept them thinking Yoonah could have them when she grows up, but she’s more interested in stealing my clothes.” He laughed. “She likes dresses, but she likes wearing trousers even more.” 

Seungmin smiled. He didn’t have an occasion to get to know Yoonah better yet, but he already felt she was a special girl.

“I’ll clean everything later, so you could sleep there,” Hyunjin said, surprising him. 

“Oh… I can’t, it’s your mom’s room.” He said puzzled.

“It’s okay, I should’ve cleaned it a long time ago,” Hyunjin said and smiled at him kindly. He touched his mother’s favourite dress once again. “There’s no point in dwelling on the past.”

This was the moment when Seungmin realised it won’t be this easy to throw Hyunjin out of his heart. 

***

Seungmin was the one who had to go back to the market. He was the only one who  _ could  _ do that because of the obvious situation of Yoonah and Hyunjin. He really missed proper meals and when Hyunjin turned out to be a better cook Seungmin expected him to be after the partridge incident, he almost cried out of happiness to his own plate. 

After all of the things he had to do, after taking a bath, lending Hyunjin’s clothes (which Yoonah seemed to be jealous of), shopping and eating he finally had some time to look at the books. 

The first one he took had a long title, but he was able to read only the first part written in a bigger font. It said  _ Witchcraft and the Source, _ and he thought it would be a very reasonable beginning. He looked briefly at the other books and spotted  _ The Great Book of Spells _ and  _ Advanced Magic _ so he guessed he’d also have some reading for later.

Seungmin opened  _ Witchcraft and the Source,  _ and firstly he flipped through it. The author's handwriting was neat, but he already knew he would have hard times reading some parts of it.

The book was very old, it smelled like dust and touching the pages made Seungmin feel that his hands were dirty. Some of the pages were blurry or stained, all of them were yellowed, and in addition, the language used in the book differed from the one currently spoken. 

Seungmin was anxious that he won’t be able to decipher it. He really wanted to help Yoonah, but the task wasn’t easy. He decided to take it slowly and opened the book at the very beginning. He noticed that few first pages were lacking and he wondered if there’s a similar problem in the middle of the book. 

He started reading, and at first, it didn’t make any sense to him at all. Not only the reading was going slow because of all the obstacles, but also the text was out of the context. He didn’t know how much time he spent on trying to understand the words written there, but when Hyunjin came to check on him, he thought it must have been a lot. 

Hyunjin entered quietly and put a glass of water on the table next to him. Seungmin muttered a simple thank you and continued reading. Hyunjin didn’t say a word until Seungmin sighed deeply and looked up which he saw as a signal he’s ready to take a small break. Seungmin was thankful that he didn’t interrupt, even if he wasn’t making any progress so far.

“How is it going?” He asked quietly. 

“Slowly,” Seungmin answered. “Everything is vague, and there is no time for guessing.”

Hyunjin nodded in understanding. Seungmin felt that he had to hurry, but maybe he wasn’t right. Even if he finds a solution for Yoonah to stay alive and humane before the clan attack, could they make any use of that? She was an eleven years old girl, she wasn’t a fighter. Not yet, at least. 

What kind of life waited for her there, if she learned magic? 

“When it’s over…” Hyunjin spoke up again. “Could you teach Yoonah and me how to read?”

Seungmin looked at him, surprised. He wouldn’t think that Hyunjin was a type of person who was interested in reading books and getting his knowledge from them. In his eyes, he was a survivor type, a person who relied on experience and cleverness. Once again, he assumed something about him, not considering what he went through. He didn’t notice the fact that Hyunjin also could have his ambitions and interests. He wasn’t given the comfort of stability or peace, he couldn’t just undertake whatever he wanted opposite to Seungmin. 

Then he realised something else, something that shook his emotions even more. When all of this is over, Hyunjin wanted to stick together. It wasn’t just wishing or hoping, he was sure that Seungmin will stay with him, that they will still be friends or whatever they were in Hyunjin’s head. He didn’t know what to think about that. Of course, he still wanted to stay. The real question was if he  _ should  _ stay. What kind of influence would it have on his mind? Will he have to look every day at the only person he ever wanted, the person that he can’t have?

Even if he managed to stay away from him, they were still bonded. He couldn’t just forget about Hyunjin. There was not a single way in which it was possible.

“Yes…” He finally said. “If I’m still here, I will teach you.”

Seungmin’s answer must have surprised him, but he didn’t comment on it. He just kept looking at him, and Seungmin wondered how he interpreted his response. Did he think that Seungmin was just scared he won’t make it through the attack? Or did he understand it as he should, as a simple ‘I don’t know what will happen in the future.’?

Hyunjin broke the staring looking to the side briefly. He was emotional, and it was like an alarm to Seungmin. His heart started beating faster. 

“I won’t interrupt you anymore.” He mumbled not even looking at Seungmin and stood up hastily to leave the room. 

  
  


***

  
  


The evening was coming. Seungmin was working alone, Hyunjin kept his promise of not interrupting. Even though Seungmin was upset about hurting him, he didn’t mind loneliness at that time. The book for sure demanded from him focusing and he wasn’t the one to give up his work for the dilemmas of his heart. 

He already thought that he wouldn’t find anything useful that day when an interesting paragraph caught his attention. It was only a brief reminder of what was supposed to be explained at the very beginning of the book. It must have been located on the pages that were lacking, and Seungmin cursed realising the importance of that part. 

The first thing that he found interesting was about deriving the energy from the source, but it was written in a very complicated, almost archaic language and Seungmin couldn’t understand much from it. 

What was more important was the short description of how to use magic. Seungmin was amazed by how easy it seemed to be. 

The witch was supposed to imagine that her own body was a vessel and the magic going through her veins was like a liquid giving her strength. She should feel it and take just a little bit because the source was always powerful and easy to be destructive. 

So the answer was the mind. Seungmin tried to do what the book said just so he could understand it better and then lead Yoonah. He imagined the power being inside of him, he saw himself as a vessel and tried to take a sip from it. 

He didn’t expect to feel anything after that trial, but in fact, he felt discomfort. It wasn’t the feeling related only to his mind, it was different, weird. Seungmin guessed it was because he was Silver-Blooded and tried to play with magic. Maybe his organism was fighting it right away. And that meant it worked.

Seungmin decided to test it on Hyunjin first. Of course, he checked it on himself already, and his and Hyunjin’s organisms varied from Yoonah’s, but he couldn’t risk putting a little girl in danger. And whatever he wanted to try, he needed to ask her brother first. Besides, he was still awkward with kids. He unconsciously hoped that Hyunjin would become some kind of mediator between him and Yoonah.

He opened the door of Hyunjin and Yoonah’s room to find them sitting on the floor and talking quietly. He looked at Hyunjin smiling gently at his little sister, and it made his heart grow. He couldn’t just stand there and marvel at the scene though, especially not when Hyunjin spotted him at the door, and his smile dropped. 

“Come,” Seungmin said simply, and for a moment he was scared he wouldn’t listen to him. Opposite to his fear Hyunjin stood up instantly and followed him back to the kitchen where Seungmin was working. He wouldn’t risk Yoonah’s well-being just to sulk.

“Have you found anything?” He asked when Seungmin picked up  _ Witchcraft and the Source  _ from the table and looked at the paragraph once again. 

“Maybe,” Seungmin answered. “I want to try it on you first.” 

Hyunjin nodded. Seungmin knew he was ready to risk anything for Yoonah, luckily this time much of sacrifice wasn’t needed. 

“I need you to focus.” He said and watched Hyunjin bracing himself for the task that wasn’t really that demanding. “Close your eyes.” 

Closing eyes wasn’t necessary, but he was aware that focusing could be harder when there was another person around, and he needed Hyunjin to do it correctly. 

“Imagine your body is a vessel.” 

Hyunjin looked at him surprised, but Seungmin ignored it.

“Okay?” He said hesitantly.

“Don’t answer. Try to imagine magic power going through your veins.”

Hyunjin didn’t answer just as he asked him and Seungmin hoped he really put all his focus on the task. 

“Now take a sip.”

He furrowed his eyebrows. He still didn’t open his eyes, though. Seungmin hoped he was doing enough. 

“You feel it?” He asked, and Hyunjin shook his head slowly. He was confused and seemed to think that it wasn’t over yet, his eyes were still closed. Seungmin put his hand on his shoulder to give him a signal that that was it.

“Try again.” Said Seungmin trying not to get stressed by the failed trial. He probably didn’t do it the way he should, maybe he got too distracted. He was Silver-Blooded as well, he was supposed to feel exactly the same discomfort which Seungmin had felt. 

Hyunjin closed his eyes and went through the whole process again without the need of Seungmin’s help. Seungmin waited patiently until he was finished.

“And?” He asked. 

“Nothing.”

Seungmin was frustrated. He was sure that he found a solution to one of the problems. Of course, the use of magic itself wasn’t an answer, he needed to find the reason for the change and find out how to stop it. It would be something, though. If it wasn’t the way, why did it work on him? 

“You’re doing something wrong.” He said. He had no idea what could go wrong in such a simple thing, but it had to be something. 

Hyunjin didn’t complain, he must have noticed how distressed Seungmin was. He didn’t want to make it worse.

Seungmin got lost in thoughts, then he gained the courage to say what he wanted to say. 

“I’m gonna try it on Yoonah.”

Hyunjin looked uncertain.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” 

“Does it sound like something dangerous?” Seungmin understood that he was just worried, but this time it really wasn’t needed. 

Hyunjin analysed his face before answering. 

“Okay, let’s try it.” He headed to their room right away. 

Seungmin thought that he didn’t believe him that he actually found something significant. He didn’t believe it could work as it was something uncomplicated, maybe even naive. But he was sure what he had read there. There were some parts in the book that he couldn’t understand, but there were some that were simple and coherent, and this was one of them.

Hyunjin opened the door to the room and stepped aside. 

“Yoonah, go with Seungmin please.”

Seungmin gulped. He thought that Hyunjin would keep them company. He couldn’t believe he was actually nervous at the thought of being around a little girl. 

Yoonah stood up right away and joined Seungmin without any complaint. Seungmin expected her to be more bratty, at their very first meeting she showed that she tends to act in this way. Maybe Hyunjin had a special influence on people, you don’t even know when you obey.

And you don’t mind that either.

Seungmin was left alone with Yoonah at the kitchen and felt extremely awkward. He hoped that the girl wouldn’t notice it, but from the way she smirked at him, he could read that she already had. He had to take control of the situation before he gets bullied by an eleven years old. 

“Sit down, Yoonah.”

The girl sat down and looked up at him, waiting. Seungmin sat next to her at the table and tried to organise his thoughts.

“How did you first notice you’re Black-Blooded? Do you remember?”

Yoonah shook his head.

“I think it was a scratch or something. Jinnie noticed.” 

Seungmin smiled fondly at the nickname she had for her older brother.

“Have you ever had some… burst of magic?”

She nodded energetically. 

“I burned Hyunjin’s hair.” 

Seungmin snorted imagining hairless Hyunjin. He wondered how he felt looking like an egg and probably sulking whole this time. Was this the reason why now he kept his hair so long? Yoonah joined his laughter enjoying his brother’s misery.

“And after that?” Seungmin asked, making the girl focus again. 

“Umm… Sometimes my hands sparkle… It’s like little lightning, you know? Like a small thunder in my fingers.”

Seungmin smiled again. She was adorable. He really appreciated that she tried to explain everything to him without being impatient. If this was how kids worked, Seungmin didn’t mind it that much. 

“Can you control it?”

Yoonah shook her head.

“Okay… I want you to try something.” Seungmin noticed how she prepared herself to the task in the same way in which her brother did. It was very hard not to think about Hyunjin in the way he does when Yoonah was around. He couldn’t stop seeing him as a caring and warm person when he was observing how deeply the siblings were connected, when he kept seeing that in all the gestures they were making, even the smallest ones. 

Seungmin slowly explained to Yoonah what she was supposed to do. Her trials were more significant that Hyunjin’s, so he didn’t want to interrupt her with talking along the whole thing. The girl listened to him patiently and didn’t ridicule it for being simple. She treated it seriously, and Seungmin was hopeful. He was sure that Yoonah will do it correctly. Seungmin already had more faith in her than in her older brother. 

Seungmin waited until she was done. He was scared to breathe until the girl looked up at him again. 

“So?” He asked. “How were you feeling?”

“Empty.”

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin woke up feeling pain in his every muscle. He had expected to wake up refreshed, it felt like he wasn’t sleeping in a bed in years. He had one in the tavern but what you usually get in a tavern is not good quality. The bed there was hard as fuck, opposite to the one he got in Hyunjin’s house. He remembered that this bed belonged to his mother, so he appreciated getting to sleep there even more. When he was falling asleep, it felt like a blessing, now it was a nightmare. 

His whole body was sore. When he was touching his skin, it hurt even more. It seemed like the reason for the pain wasn’t the bed itself. If it was then maybe his back would hurt, but he didn’t feel anything like that. Maybe he was just so tired after the journey that the first sleep in a house without the thought that they have to go the very next day just had to feel like that. 

He decided not to focus too much on that. He had it worse, there was no reason to whine about such a slight inconvenience. He had work to do. 

The kitchen was empty, the only thing that caught his attention was a bowl with food left there. Seungmin knew that Hyunjin hid the books somewhere in the house, they both decided that Hyunjin will be the only one to know their place. 

He knocked to their door before entering. Hyunjin greeted him warmly. 

“Good morning.” He said. “Did you sleep well?” 

Seungmin didn’t want to tell him that he was feeling like shit. 

“What time is it?” He asked.

“Around noon.”

“What?” Seungmin asked, terrified. “You let me sleep this long?” 

“You deserved it,” Hyunjin said, and it made Seungmin warm. He tried to fight it. 

“I should’ve been working already.” He said.

“Don’t stress over it,” Hyunjin answered and smiled at him kindly. ‘We left you breakfast. Go eat, and I’ll bring you the books.”

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin didn’t like to admit it, but he was disappointed. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to expect to solve the problem the very first day, but he had expected to find at least something and the fact that he was sure he actually did wasn’t making it any better.

He wasn’t feeling well, the soreness of his body was making him exhausted. He expected the feeling to go away after some time, but it was still the same, and he was getting annoyed. He was sick of his whole body playing games with him. 

Hyunjin visited him once to make him tea and ask if he needs any help, and even if it was very kind of him, Seungmin sent him off. He wanted to stay alone, he wanted to focus on his job and not to think too much about the latest changes in his life.

The good news was that he found a description of basic spells he could use later. It could be useful, considering that the two other books he had were for advanced learners. But Seungmin couldn’t even test them now. 

He was frowning looking at the yellowed pages until he noticed a movement behind the window and with the same unfriendly facial expression he looked up. 

He caught a glimpse of a stranger which hid immediately and was probably already trying to run away. He would even have a chance. He would definitely run away if Seungmin decided to go out of the kitchen through the corridor and then to the front door only after that starting running, but he had had enough. He got to the window and opened it violently to jump out of it. It turned out that besides the lack of stairs, there was another advantage of living on a ground floor. 

It didn’t take him much to catch the stranger. He didn’t even run more than three meters, but he already felt that his ankle wouldn't be too thankful for that. He caught the man’s clothes and pushed him to the wall.

“Who are you?” He asked, making sure he at least sounded dangerous.

“So it’s true he’s back...” The man mumbled, but it didn’t make much sense to Seungmin. 

“What are you talking about?” Seungmin wouldn’t lie, he was getting more and more pissed off.

“I’m talking about this psychopath.” He answered. 

Seungmin pushed him a little bit more when he heard what he just called Hyunjin, and he was sure that the guy wasn’t even able to breathe now, being imprisoned between Seungmin and the wall. 

“I’m saying this in good faith, sir.” He added quickly. “I’m afraid you’d be next, I wanted to save you.” 

Seungmin laughed and stepped back for a second, and the stranger must have believed his laugh was genuine. He lost his faith when Seungmin’s fist crashed his nose. Right after that, Seungmin kicked his stomach with his knee, and the man fell to the ground. Seungmin picked him up by his clothes and hit the same spot on the wall with the guy’s body. He grabbed his bloody face harshly and moved his face way too close to the other’s. God, he really picked up from Hyunjin a couple of bad things. 

“Do I look like someone that wants to be saved?” Seungmin asked slowly. 

“No. No, sir.” The guy stuttered. “I‘m so sorry.” 

Seungmin pushed him away, and the man almost fell again. 

“If I see any of you near this house again I’m going to fucking eat your organs, understand?” He really picked a wrong day to annoy Seungmin. “You better tell that to your friends.” 

He didn’t watch the guy running away like he just met the worst demon, he just turned back wanting to go through the door this time. Of course what he had to see then was Hyunjin standing in front of the door and watching him. Did he really have to always materialise next to Seungmin when he was doing some dumb shit? 

Hyunjin’s face looked cold, it reminded Seungmin of their old days, it reminded him of Hwang. This time he actually wanted to be saved. Hyunjin’s voice sounded emotionless when he spoke. 

“We need to talk.” 


	7. Chapter 7

After the incident with the stranger, Seungmin was even more exhausted. He didn’t know how just a few movements could mean for him such fatigue. Was he really that old?

Looking at Hyunjin’s face wasn’t easy to him as well. Not only was he heartbroken because of the rejection but also now Hyunjin looked so worried and stressed that it was making Seungmin feel exactly the same.

Seungmin wondered if Hyunjin was mad at him for the whole situation. He knew that he had changed since he met him, but he couldn’t decipher whether it was a good change or a bad one. He was just sick of being impassive. He was sick of playing a victim and living in the past. He didn’t want to turn his back at the things he used to consider important, he didn’t want to ignore the things that he thought should be changed, not anymore. Hyunjin taught him that. 

They were sitting at the bed, which was Seungmin’s now. Hyunjin didn’t want Yoonah to hear whatever he was about to say. The whole atmosphere was making Seungmin impatient, but he was scared to open his mouth first. 

“I own you an apology.” Hyunjin finally said. 

What? Did he think that he made Seungmin aggressive or anything like that? It wasn’t even the case. Seungmin was always like this when someone or something was pissing him off. The only difference was that what used to piss him off before were witches. 

“I lied to you.” Seungmin could spot that he was ashamed even though he tried to hide it. “Once.” 

He was confused. He had no idea what Hyunjin lied about and how it could relate to the situation that happened outside. He tried to be mad at him, but somehow he couldn’t. Hyunjin wasn’t a liar, he was sure about that, so if it happened that one time he must had had a very good reason to do so. Seungmin cursed at himself in his head for believing in Hyunjin this much. 

“What do you mean?” Seungmin asked weakly. It was making him anxious. What could be the lie? Their relation? He thought they already had that one established. 

“I’ll start from the beginning, okay?” Hyunjin said. His tone was soothing, as always when Seungmin was uncertain and needed his support. It was amazing how he used to need it even when he considered Hyunjin his enemy. 

“Few years before I joined the clan, I met a boy. He was about my age, but maybe he was a bit more childish…Actually, I wasn’t the best example of maturity as well.”

Seungmin tried to keep his face neutral as Hyunjin was going through the story, but it was hard not to frown. How could it be related to him?

Even though it was making him even more lost, he wanted to listen. He was glad to get to know more elements from Hyunjin’s life, he really was. He just wanted these anxious feelings to be gone. 

“We were fooling around a lot, you know. I admit we led each other to a wrong path. We didn’t have to do a lot of things that we chose to do, but living normally seemed to be too boring for us. Soon we became local thieves.”

Seungmin had to admit that it didn’t surprise him that much. Hyunjin already told him that he had taught Yoonah how to steal, he had to have this knowledge from somewhere. 

“I was in love with him.” He added. 

This was what hit Seungmin, he wasn’t wrong about that one at least. Somehow it only hurt more. If it wasn’t about Hyunjin disliking men, it must have been about disliking Seungmin, and Seungmin only. 

Hyunjin took a deep breath before continuing. 

“There was another problem. He was a son of a mayor, so everybody knew what was going around him, around both of us… The gossips turned into hatred, people couldn’t accept two men… two boys who loved each other… So they started harassing us.” 

Seungmin felt so sorry towards him. He saw how much it cost him to tell him all of this. The worst part was that Seungmin couldn’t do anything to help him. 

“It wasn’t even that bad from my perspective... They were using mostly words, and when they wanted to hurt us physically they just hurt me… They were still scared of his father even if they didn’t talk. I could manage, I thought  _ we  _ could manage… But he was way more fragile than me… He couldn’t cope with all of this, he wasn’t able to…” 

_ Oh. _

“Locals couldn’t blame themselves for this, so they started blaming me. Gossips turned into an entirely different story which everybody seemed to believe in, and soon after I was called a murderer.” He finished. 

Even though now it wasn’t easy for Hyunjin to talk about this, Seungmin could tell he already considered it an old wound. It must have happened a long time ago. Seungmin still didn’t know why it decided to come back now, though. 

“I was scared they would get to you too.” He said, looking down at their hands which were lying next to each other on the bed. “How could I’ve omitted you’re a totally different person?” 

Seungmin couldn’t stand it, so he tried to put his hand on Hyunjin’s but Hyunjin took it away. For a moment his heart stopped, but the situation cleared up right away when he put both his hands on Seungmin’s cheeks and right after that he connected their lips. The kiss was delicate but needy, it took over all of Seungmin’s thoughts, and Seungmin’s mind was filled with Hyunjin. His touch, his taste, his warmness. Everything was Hyunjin. 

He pulled back just for a moment but Seungmin already felt the loss.

“I’m so sorry I lied to you, Seungmin,” Hyunjin said. “I do like you.”

Then his lips were back on Seungmin’s again and right after he felt his hands going from his cheeks to his body and when he was touching him, Seungmin didn’t feel the soreness anymore. He wanted more of Hyunjin, no matter how close he already was, he still wanted to have him closer. The feeling that the bond was giving them was making everything better, but it was nothing compared to the knowledge that Hyunjin liked him back. That he wanted him too. 

Everything was happening fast, and soon Seungmin felt dizzy. Even though it was a lot, he didn’t want it to stop. Whatever he was getting, he still wanted more.

  
  


***

  
  


The next morning greeted Seungmin with even more of soreness. The day before he didn’t accomplish much in his study, but he was okay with that. He stayed calm, he was sure he could figure it out, he just needed to give himself more time. 

The happenings of that day were fast and slow at the same time. After the time he had spent with Hyunjin, he went to the market, and when he came back, he started working again, having him by his side most of the time. Seungmin was surprised that he was actually able to focus, but Hyunjin stayed quiet, helping him when he was needed, giving him support and occasionally holding his hand when he was sure he won’t disturb. He even managed to fall asleep at the table once and only then Seungmin managed to convince him to go play with Yoonah instead. When the night came, he had him in his bed again.

Now Seungmin was watching Hyunjin sleeping by his side, and it made everything easier for him. He didn’t know why the pain wasn’t gone but only intensified. He would expect some part of it to be there but not in his whole body again, not stronger. And only looking at Hyunjin’s calmness stopped him from panicking.

Hyunjin opened his eyes and smiled, and Seungmin told himself that everything will be okay.

“Morning.” He said, and Seungmin leaned in to kiss his forehead. His hair was messy, and his eyes swollen, but he still looked pretty. Seungmin wondered if it was possible to fall for him even more. 

He noticed how sleepy his lover still was, so he decided to let him sleep some more and make breakfast for all of them. Hyunjin was already asleep before Seungmin managed to put his trousers back on. 

He opened the kitchen door and jumped in the spot when he saw a person sitting there as if nothing happened. He looked like he didn’t notice when Seungmin entered, too occupied with eating apples. Seungmin’s apples. 

“You could’ve spared me  _ one  _ at least,” Seungmin said sighing. 

“I was hungry!” Minho answered with a full mouth almost spitting at himself.

“How did you even get inside?” He asked, standing back to Minho already. He couldn’t forget he was here to make that damned breakfast.

“By the door?” Minho answered. “How else should I get in?” He laughed to himself. 

“Wait...” Seungmin said realising one important detail. 

He opened the door of Yoonah’s room and looked around surprised he couldn’t spot the girl. Only after a few long seconds, he noticed her standing in the corner of the room. Actually, it looked like she just materialised there. 

“I don’t know how he got in.” She whispered. “I didn’t know what to do.”

“It’s okay, Yoonah.” Seungmin tried to calm her down. “Come, I guess I have to show you this thing doesn’t bite.” He murmured.

Yoonah came out from the place she was hiding and caught Seungmin’s sleeve. Seungmin smiled, thinking how adorable it was. He wouldn’t label her as a child who was easily scared, but he understood how uneasy the situation was for her. She had spent her whole childhood hiding, never talking to anyone besides her brother, and suddenly there was a stranger sitting in her kitchen. Seungmin brought her to meet him just to make her more comfortable with the situation which, as he was sure, won’t end so soon.

Yoonah looked at Minho like a frightened cat and Minho looked back at her in the exact same way, the only difference was that he was still chewing. 

“So this old guy is our friend?” She tried to whisper to Seungmin, but it didn’t go so well.

“Hey!” Minho shouted then indignant. “I’m younger than him!” He pointed his finger at Seungmin. 

“That’s not-” As always he got lost trying to understand how his mind worked. “You’re literally not. You’re almost thirty, Minho.”

“Yeah but...” He put his hand on his chest. “Here.”

Seungmin rolled his eyes. 

“And I still have two more years before I’m thirty.” He mumbled to the ground visibly offended. 

Seungmin fought the need to roll his eyes the second time. Yoonah was still attached to his sleeve, so he mumbled some ‘go back’ to her and went to sit next to Minho. At the same time, Hyunjin went inside and spotted the visitor. He groaned obnoxiously and left right away. 

“Aww…” Minho said, smiling brightly. “Hwang missed me.”

Seungmin sighed deeply. 

_ You can do it. Don’t roll your eyes, Seungmin. Be good.  _

“Why are you here?” He asked. 

Minho shrugged. 

“I don’t know yet.” He answered.

“And how did you get there?” Seungmin asked hoping to get from him at least a small piece of information. 

“Ha. You won’t cheat old Minho.”

_ And now he’s old. _

“Okay,” Minho said, standing up. Seungmin was alarmed. “Imma get going. Look around, meet some people…”

“No,” Seungmin said, but Minho was getting dangerously close to the door. “Minho, no. Go talk to Hyunjin first.” 

Only then he stopped and looked at Seungmin puzzled. 

“Who’s Hyunjin?”

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin kept circling around the same concept of magic usage he picked up from the book at the very beginning. It seemed like the releasing of the magic power was the key of every spell, of every single charm and curse you could possibly perform. It was making him frustrated because  _ Witchcraft and the Source  _ kept confirming it was the right way, but Hyunjin and Yoonah were thinking otherwise. 

He came back to the first few chapters wanting to check it once again. He couldn’t stop the feeling that something was lacking, that he was missing something important. He was flipping through the pages, but he couldn’t look at any of this with a new perspective, which he thought was needed if he wanted to accomplish anything. He decided to just give it up for now and go back to the spells he was studying. 

He spotted Yoonah joining him at the table, but she stayed quiet. She was just sitting there leaning her head on her hands, and Seungmin would think that she just wanted to watch him until he looked up and spotted her silly smile. 

“What is it, Yoonah?” He asked.

“Nothing…” She said giggling. “My second brother.” 

Seungmin looked at her abashed. 

“What… What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on... “ She answered. “I know you’re Jinnie’s boyfriend! You two tried to lie to me, but I know!” She sent him the biggest smile he had ever seen on her face. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tried to cut the topic. He could feel himself blushing, it wasn’t making him very reliable. 

Seungmin wasn’t sure if Yoonah was supposed to know about his relationship with Hyunjin. He remembered how Hyunjin denied it the first time, maybe it wasn’t true then, but this denial still had some meaning. It proved that Hyunjin had never admitted to his little sister that he was gay. It didn’t hurt Seungmin in any way, because why should he? She was eleven, so maybe this fact shouldn’t be her concern yet. At the same time, she was smart, and she didn’t seem to be traumatised at this thought. 

Her tone went from excitement to enthusiastic but calmer support. 

“You can tell me,” Yoonah said. “I like you, and you and Jinnie look pretty together.”

It sent another wave of heat to Seungmin’s cheeks. He was sure he couldn’t hide his embarrassment now, it was too obvious. At the same time, he was glad that the girl wanted to show him her support. Maybe he was really awkward with her at first, but with time he felt how she was gaining his sympathy and attachment. She really was a special kid. 

It wasn’t Seungmin’s place to tell Yoonah about it, but at this point, he wasn’t able to hide it anymore. He just gave her a shy smile and a nod, and she answered clapping her hands even more excited. 

“I knew it!” She almost shouted. 

“Hey!” Seungmin said. “Don’t tell your brother I told you.” 

“Got it.” She answered and laughed. “So, what is it?” She asked, pointing at the page that Seungmin had been reading before they started the conversation. 

“This one is a spell, you see?” He pointed at the line written in italics. “It’s for sending magic bullets.” 

It was hard for him to decipher the spells at first. They were written in language even older than the rest of the book was written in, so Seungmin had no idea what particular spells were for. Luckily every single spell had a short explanation, the only thing he had to do was to understand the description, which also wasn’t this easy. He was also scared that the pronunciation of the spell would differ from the current one. He found a list of how to pronounce particular segments according to the standards of the times the book was written in. So the lacking puzzle was figuring out the pronunciation of those times. 

He had an idea how to do it, but he couldn’t prove it in any way not counting trying it with a witch. But to do that he had to figure out how to actually put magic in use. 

“Do you want to try it? He asked.

Yoonah noded interested. 

“Okay, do you remember what I taught you last time?”

“Yes.” She said. 

Until then, he didn’t think of the option that the way of activating magic power could be useless without a spell. The one for sending a bullet was an absolutely basic thing so it shouldn’t be too complicated, it should work for a beginner. Seungmin was hopeful. 

“You’ll have to do exactly the same thing, but when the power is supposed to go out of your body, you have to extend your hand and say the spell I’ll teach you in a moment.” 

She nodded.

From what he had read skilful witches should be able to use magic without saying the spell aloud, but it wouldn’t be possible at the first try. The next step was repeating the spell in your thoughts while performing it, before accomplishing doing it naturally. Of course, it wasn’t knowledge which he took from the books only. He saw witches on multiple occasions and never had he seen any of them saying a spell aloud. Before he started his study, he thought that the whole process was less complicated, he actually made a mistake of assuming witches controlled their magic naturally, without any thoughts. He looked at clans from a new perspective now. He was sure witches weren’t reading books to learn magic, the Mother was supposed to be the one to teach magic to the other witches, but it was still impressive for creatures Seungmin used to think were almost completely mindless.

“Remember not to point your hand at me when you do it. If it works, it could hurt me, point at some empty space instead.” Seungmin added. 

“Okay, I’ll remember,” Yoonah answered with seriousness worthy of an adult, and Seungmin was already proud of his student. Even if it won’t work, he was certain she treated it the way she should. He could be sure she’ll put every effort into it, she won't neglect it in any way.

Seungmin read the spell aloud for her and watched her expression turn into a very confused one. He smiled encouragingly then and repeated it once again. He really hoped he was doing it right. It took a few more times until the girl was able to remember it.

It wasn’t much, but he felt exhausted right after. It felt unnatural, he was already tired and sore before, and suddenly it increased after so little effort. He was getting concerned about his own state. 

Yoonah went through the process calmly and carefully. She was focused, and that was already a good sign. Seungmin listened to her say the spell, and he was pleased that she did it exactly as he asked her to. He waited patiently until she was done. After she did what she was supposed to do, she looked at him uncomfortably. 

“And?” Seungmin asked. “How did it feel?”

“It felt like I was incomplete… As if I was empty.” She answered. 

  
  


*** 

  
  


Seungmin wondered what he was missing. There was obviously something he couldn’t see, something he forgot about or didn’t take into consideration. Was that possible that the problem was in Yoonah? 

He didn’t want to say it aloud, but when he thought about it, it made sense. She was Black-Blooded, yes, but when she tried to use magic, she said she felt empty. What if she just didn’t have enough power inside of her to do so? Could it really be the thing? 

Seungmin was always estimating the witch’s power by the years she had lived, which was usually noticeable through the way she looked. The more you were into magic, the more frightening creature you were. Older witches were always more powerful, as he thought because they were practising magic for a longer time, and they were becoming skilful. He had never thought it could have any relation to having talent. 

Did Silver-Blooded rely on talent? There were better and worse Hunters, but it mostly depended on the training, physical abilities and yeah, maybe talent but one that was physical only. There was no sense in comparing it actually. Silver-Blooded didn’t really perform anything, so technically they didn't need to have any talent. Their true destiny was to find their dragon, why would you need talent for that? Witches, on the other hand, were a whole different story. 

Seungmin never truly noticed how different they were. He always considered himself and the witches to be on the completely opposite side of life but created by the same hand. As if the witches were the dark side and Seungmin and the other Hunters were on the bright side. As if they were the angels and the devils. As if he was standing in front of a lake at night, and when he looked down the reflection he saw in the water brightened by the moon wasn’t him but a witch looking in his eyes saying they belonged to each other. Sometimes looking in the water, he thought he could actually see that. 

Now he didn’t believe it was true anymore. Hyunjin taught him that not everything was black and white and Seungmin realised how blinded by hatred he used to be. He always thought that the witches were evil creatures, but now he realised they were just people who found themselves in a difficult situation. Because that’s what they were. People. They were women... girls like Yoonah, when all of this had started for them, and they were terrified. They just didn’t want to die, and perhaps they didn’t have someone like Hyunjin near them, so there was no choice for them. People didn’t leave them any choice than to join the clan or die in agony. Who would choose the death in the fire? For all this time, he had never realised that not the witches were the evil ones. And for all this time he had despised them… Maybe he was the one who deserved to be despised. 

“You’re okay?” Hyunjin interrupted his drowning in thoughts. Seungmin hadn’t even noticed when he entered the room. 

“Hm?” He didn’t know what Hyunjin meant. Was he thinking aloud or something?

“You look pale.” He explained sitting next to him and putting his hand on Seungmin’s forehead. Right after he put it on his cheek and realising Seungmin wasn’t in fever or anything like that he rubbed it with his thumb delicately to show him affection. 

“I’m okay,” Seungmin answered, melting into the touch. 

“Are you overworking yourself?” Hyunjin asked.

“You know I’m not.” Said Seungmin. 

It was true that he wasn’t overworked. He was sitting with the cursed books all the time he had, but he was okay with that. It wasn’t hard work. Maybe he was a bit tired, but it was just mental tiredness, it shouldn’t be affecting him physically, not that much at least. He was sure he wasn’t overworked, but he knew he wasn’t okay as well. He didn’t want to make Hyunjin worried, though. Now wasn’t the best time to fell ill so maybe he was just unconsciously trying to ignore his state to make it less true, to make it go away. But the truth was that he was feeling pain with his every movement and it was getting stronger with time instead of getting better. Hyunjin was probably right that he was pale because he was feeling so weak that he was scared that he would collapse at any moment. The truth was that he was probably getting sick, very sick, but he couldn't tell what it was. The way it felt wasn’t promising, whatever it was it could probably bring him the worst. 

He only noticed that he was looking down when Hyunjin lifted his chin to place a soft kiss on his lips. That would be it if Seungmin wouldn’t keep him close to connect their lips once again. At this proximity, Hyunjin wasn’t able to see that Seungmin’s eyes were shining with tears. He didn’t know what kind of destiny waited for him now, but he wasn’t able to leave Hyunjin, not yet. Not when he needed him the most. 

They disconnected, but Hyunjin didn’t leave him. He was sitting in front of him, so Seungmin took his hands in his own, he held his fingers delicately as if he was scared to grab his palms. He was looking at Hyunjin’s soft smile, trying to control his emotions. Looking at his lover’s face, he tried to find that last piece of courage he had in himself.

“Are you ready for your first reading lesson?” Seungmin asked and watched the smile at Hyunjin’s face turn into surprise. 

“Now? Won’t it disturb what you’re working at?” He asked. 

Seungmin smiled, and it looked weak, even though he tried his best to make that smile believable. 

“I need to refresh my thoughts anyway,” Seungmin answered. 

“Okay.” Hyunjin looked excited but uncertain. “Let’s do it.”

Seungmin wondered if Hyunjin was scared that Seungmin still thinks about leaving him. To some point he was right, but at the same time, he wasn’t. He just needed to be sure that whatever was going to happen all of Hyunjin’s effort wouldn’t go to waste. Whether he was going to be beside him or not, he will help.

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin tried to be understanding, but he had to admit that Minho’s snoring was starting to drive him crazy. It wasn’t even that loud, but after an hour, he was sure that it was stuck in his head as if it was a song. What was even that Minho’s thing for falling asleep at the tables? Last time at least he had an excuse or more like few litres of excuses, but now he did that on purpose. He literally thought that falling asleep at the very table Seungmin was working at was a great thing to do. 

Seungmin sighed and decided he will give Minho a few more minutes. Seungmin wasn’t making any big discoveries anyway. So far he managed to decipher a fair number of useful spells, he even taught Yoonah some of them. They were practising it few times a day when Seungmin needed a break from constant reading and thinking. To be honest, that day he was getting too tired to continue working quite fast. He tried not to show how exhausted he was, but he couldn’t miss the worried looks that Hyunjin was giving him. He knew that something was wrong, but he was probably aware that he couldn’t do anything about it as well. Seungmin tried not to think about it for now. 

Seungmin looked at the spells he had collected with swollen eyes. It was getting late already, but he wouldn’t call this day productive. He knew that the spells were actually useless without the ability to activate them, and it was making him frustrated. 

Seungmin kicked Minho’s ankle with a fair amount of strength put into it. Honestly, he expected more sudden reaction, but Minho just groaned like it was nothing and seemed to be motivated to just continue sleeping. Seungmin kicked him once again. 

“What do you want?” He mumbled barely raising his head.

“Nothing,” Seungmin answered. “You’re driving me insane.” 

Minho sent him an ugly, half asleep smile bringing his face closer as if he was talking to a child. 

“Aren’t you already?”

Seungmin ignored him. Minho luckily stayed quiet watching Seungmin while leaning on his hands and blinking heavily, when Seungmin was going through the same pages once again. Maybe it was just the sleepiness making Minho so quiet, but Seungmin hoped it would last for like… forever. 

Hyunjin and Yoonah entered quietly to make supper and Seungmin regretted he had no time to watch them. It was adorable when they were cooking together, Hyunjin guiding Yoonah and Yoonah doing her best. At times like this, it couldn’t be missed how good Hyunjin was at raising the girl. 

At first, Seungmin was a bit surprised to see Minho standing up to go help them, but then he decided that everything was in place, when he noticed that Minho just used it as an excuse to steal some of their ingredients. 

Seungmin turned his eyes back to his book. He tried not to get too distracted by the noises in the background. It was a hard task, even though all of them, surprisingly including Minho, tried to stay quiet. He was beginning to lose hope that this day would actually finish with some great discovery, but then something interesting caught his attention. He took a piece of paper and tried to carefully translate the text he just found to the currently spoken language. 

‘...as you know, one cannot use magic without power. And power can be taken from the red only, but it must be taken in an honest way. The act does not matter, the entry does. Who is greedy and does what is inhuman, inhuman will become.’

Seungmin stared at the text he just wrote for a few more minutes. How was that possible that he hadn’t noticed it before? He must have read it at least a few times already, but it never occurred to him that it was important. 

He found the solution. 

He was sure that this time he did. At the same time, he was convinced that Hyunjin won’t trust him easily with this. He didn’t blame him for it, after all, he was just protecting his little sister. He understood, but the chance couldn’t be wasted. Seungmin knew what to do. 

He stood up and got closer to Hyunjin, Minho and Yoonah as if he wanted to be the fourth, absolutely unnecessary person to help. He didn’t give them much time to question. Quickly he grabbed the knife from the countertop. He caught Minho by surprise when he grabbed his hand and cut his palm. 

Minho groaned loudly, but Seungmin ignored him. While he still had time to do something by surprise, he got his fingers wet in Minho’s blood and smeared it on Yoonah’s forehead. 

All of this happened so quickly that Hyunjin didn’t have time to react until this moment. He moved forward to hide Yoonah behind his body, but Seungmin ignored him as he observed Yoonah’s frightened eyes. He was sorry that he had to do that this way, but he knew that if he didn’t, Hyunjin wouldn’t let him. 

“What the hell are you doing, Seungmin?” Hyunjin asked. 

“Just trust me.” He answered. 

Seungmin knew that what he asked Hyunjin to do wasn’t easy. He just had smeared blood on his sister’s face. The girl didn’t like it as well, and he was afraid that she wouldn’t be too eager to cooperate with him the next time.

He still had Minho’s blood on one of his hands, so he extended the other one to Yoonah. The girl was still hiding behind her sceptical brother. 

“It’s okay, Yoonah,” Seungmin said. “You know I won’t hurt you.” 

She hesitantly came closer, and her brother finally stepped aside. He grabbed Seungmin’s hand delicately and let him lead her a few steps through the kitchen. Seungmin crouched next to her and looked at her face. This way he was smaller than her, but he really needed her to calm down. 

“Do you remember when we practised the spell for a magic bullet?” He asked calmly. 

Yoonah nodded. 

“I need you to try it once again. Do you remember how to do it?”

“Yes.” She said. From her voice, Seungmin read that she was getting her confidence back. 

“Good,” said Seungmin. “Just remember to point at an empty space. It’s really important.” 

“Okay.” She answered and smiled weakly as if she wanted to show him that she already forgave him what had happened before.

Seungmin watched her as she brought herself to focus and closed her eyes. Then she started whispering the spell and when she extended her hand a power bullet shot from it going right through the opened door of the room she used to share with her brother just to hit the window. A loud crash made Hyunjin and Minho jump in place right after they opened their mouths agape in shock. 

Yoonah covered her mouth with her hands and then jumped a few times in place excited. 

“I did it!” She shouted. “Oh my God, I did it!” Seungmin noticed that the blood on her forehead disappeared. 

Then the girl jumped to Seungmin, who was still crouching next to her to hug him tightly. 

“Thank you.” She whispered. 

Seungmin was surprised, but this time it wasn’t as awkward as the first time. 

“No problem.” He said, hugging her back. 

After that, he stood up to look at Hyunjin who still seemed sceptical. 

“The blood is the only source, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the one who uses it will change into a monster,” Seungmin said.

“How do you know?” Hyunjin asked dully. 

“The witches stopped applying the rules. The skin of the witch is able to convert the red blood into power, but they wanted more than that, they wanted to take more power than they needed in a short time. They wanted immortality… So they started drinking it.”

“Ew!” He heard Yoonah behind him. 

Hyunjin just stood there for few horribly long seconds and kept thinking. For sure he knew how the witches were taking their power nowadays, he had been living with them. He just probably wasn’t aware that there was another way, just like Seungmin wasn’t till now. 

“Oh my God.” He finally said, approaching Seungmin. “You did it.” He said excited and kissed his lips.

“Ew,” Yoonah repeated.

“Okay,” Minho eventually spoke up. “So maybe now you will tell me why the hell me?” He asked, showing off his cut hand.

Seungmin rolled his eyes because the answer was so obvious.

“You’re the only Red-Blooded here,” He said and narrowed his eyes. “And you snore.”

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin got used to waking up having Hyunjin by his side, in his bed. He never actually wondered what would Seungmin from few weeks before think if he saw him right now. He would probably be terrified. He was judgemental and not easy to forgive. He was so haughty and so blind. 

Hyunjin, in fact, was a unique person. Even with such a rough start, he managed to make Seungmin fall for him so quickly. He made him change so much, and Seungmin never regretted it, not even once. There was still so much he wanted to know about him, so much he wanted to see, so much he wanted to do. He wished the circumstances were different and they could just spend this time with each other, laugh together, talk, make love. Now falling asleep was scary because Seungmin never knew what would happen when he wakes up. He just wanted to hug Hyunjin more tightly, he wanted to drown his face in his hair and find his calmness there. He couldn’t do that. He knew that moving meant more pain, and he wasn’t sure how much more he was able to take. He just needed to stay strong for a few more days. He needed to teach both Hyunjin and Yoonah how to manage without him, how to lead Yoonah’s study if Seungmin was gone. He needed them to be fine. 

He made himself stand up, and only then he noticed that Hyunjin wasn’t asleep. 

“Stay…” He murmured, and Seungmin looked back at him with a smile while putting on his shirt. 

“You know I can’t,” He said. “Besides, did you become a bigger sleepyhead than me? You’re always there when I wake up.”

“Nah,” Hyunjin answered. “No one can beat you.”

Hyunjin smiled, and Seungmin didn’t mind being teased at all. 

“I wake up as I used to, I just like to stay with you.”

Seungmin had to admit that it made him feel warm, but at the same time, he was aware that they couldn’t afford such a luxury. They had to wait for some other times, some other lives maybe. 

“You’re irresponsible,” He said. “You should’ve woken me up, I have a lot to do.”

“I know.” He said with guilt in his voice. “Tomorrow I will, I promise.” 

Seungmin finished dressing up, but before he went out of the room, Hyunjin stood up and approached him to give him a peck on the lips. 

“I’ll see you in the evening, okay?” He said. 

“Oh, you’re going somewhere?” Seungmin asked.

Seungmin knew that going around the village wasn’t really possible for Hyunjin, so it got him curious. So far, he always stayed around. Even though he couldn’t help with the books, he was always there if Seungmin needed him, he was also very enthusiastically feeding Seungmin and Yoonah. Seungmin knew that he could manage without him for one day, especially that Yoonah was as enthusiastic about helping in the kitchen. Yet the knowledge he just won’t be there was making him feel awkward. 

“Yeah, I just want to spend some time with Nocturne. Is it okay?” He asked the question carefully as if he was afraid that it would hurt Seungmin. 

Seungmin himself was surprised that it didn’t. It’s not like Hyunjin wasn’t allowed to talk about his dragon. Both of them were just aware that in the past, the thought that Seungmin couldn’t spend a day with his dragon anymore would upset him. Until this moment, Seungmin didn’t notice that he wasn’t thinking about Malgora this often anymore. Don’t get him wrong, it wasn’t like her death wasn’t upsetting him anymore, not like he erased her from his head. The difference was that now he was slowly letting himself focus on the good memories of her. Now when he was thinking about her, he missed her, yes, he was still feeling sadness, but it wasn’t as intensive anymore. He felt that he was finally on the way to his wounds getting healed. Malgora was becoming a good memory, not a painful one. 

“Of course it’s okay,” Seungmin said with a delicate smile, and his answer was honest. 

“Are you sure?” Hyunjin asked. “Won’t you need help with anything?”

“Please, why would I need you?” Seungmin answered teasingly. “Yoonah is here.”

Hyunjin laughed quietly. 

“Okay. Then have fun, you two.”

Seungmin headed to the kitchen and only when he saw a stack of books lying on the table, he realised that was that one thing he needed Hyunjin for. At least it was supposed to be that thing, but the books were there as if they materialised there themselves. 

Yoonah picked out from behind them looking impatient.

“Oh finally,” She said. 

“You know where he hides the books?” Seungmin asked, surprised. 

“I know where he hides everything.” She said, and laughed. 

Seungmin approached her and sat down, already feeling tired. He recognised how enthusiastic Yoonah was and didn’t want to bring her down by being grumpy. He was very motivated to hide his struggle, and he hoped with Yoonah it would be easier than with Hyunjin. He moved the books aside, all of them besides  _ Witchcraft and the Source _ . He opened it just to take out a piece of paper which he hid between the pages, and then he placed it in the same spot as the rest of the books. 

“I’ve prepared something for the beginning,” He said. “Are you ready?” 

  
  


***

  
  


Teaching Yoonah was easy, even if her energy was bringing Seungmin to the critical point of exhaustion. She was remarkably good at memorising the spells, even though they didn’t even remind true sentences or even words. The most rewarding was the fact that each of the spells worked, and even when it didn’t, Seungmin was able to fix it with one or just a few trials. Sometimes they had to go outside because the spells weren’t safe to perform in the building and they already broke one window which wasn’t making Hyunjin very happy. The walk outside, on the other hand, was making Seungmin unhappy. He was thinking about just staying there, instead of keeping going in and out. Unluckily, the weather wasn’t particularly good, and he didn’t want the girl to catch a cold and her brother to finish his sufferings when he discovers that it’s Seungmin’s fault. Besides, there was always a risk that someone would spot them when they’re outside and notice that not only Yoonah was alive, but she was also a witch. 

Since the solution to the problem of the change was already discovered, Seungmin thought it would be the best time to start thinking about what to do next. Yoonah just couldn’t be telling everybody that she won’t go through the change and she’ll just use magic in good causes and expect that people would believe her and leave her in peace. If words were enough, they wouldn’t have to search for the way to teach her magic at all. At the same time, Seungmin wasn’t sure why Hyunjin wanted her to learn magic in the first place. Until this moment Seungmin didn’t really question it, it just felt right. Did Hyunjin want her to live her life just fighting everyone that wanted her to die in the fire? Was she supposed to kill everyone around her until she’s finally safe? That couldn’t be it. 

Hyunjin probably didn’t know himself what should be their next steps. Seungmin was sure that he was thinking about it, but it wasn’t easy to plan anything in their situation. Even if the last days were peaceful, they still had a witch clan to worry about. Nothing was sure, and the only thing they should actually take care of was Yoonah surviving the attack when it finally comes and preparing her for the possibility of both of them being gone. That made Seungmin realise he should teach Yoonah how to read right away. 

What made him amazed was the fact of how much power Yoonah was able to get from just a few drops of blood she had converted. She was able to go the whole day of practising, and she said that she felt it will probably be enough for a one day more at least. Seungmin was sure it was related to the fact that what they were practising wasn’t that hard and each time she was using only a small amount of power. Seungmin wondered if witches were using so much blood just because of their power obsession or if the magic they were performing was this demanding.

Then he asked himself a question; was there any harmless way in which they could get the blood for Yoonah?

  
  


***

  
  


When Minho entered the room, he was smiling, but that smile faded right away when he saw Seungmin and Yoonah’s eyes focused on him as if they were a pair of starving vultures.

“You want something?” Minho asked hesitantly looking like he was contemplating whether to run away or not. 

“Yes,” Seungmin answered and shook a small jar which he was holding, showing it off unbothered. “You.” 

Minho’s eyes grew a little bigger. It was funny to watch him react like that and Seungmin allowed himself to enjoy this moment even though it was a serious matter.

“That…” Minho started pointing his finger at them. “That is unethical.” 

Seungmin rose an eyebrow. He knew Minho enough to know that he was just being dramatic and in fact, he didn’t mind sharing his blood that much. He would probably never admit it, but deep in his heart, he wanted to help. Seungmin believed in it.

“Do you have a better idea?” Seungmin asked and watched Minho’s smile going back to its place, and he already hated where it was going. “No, Minho.” 

“You’d at least let me have some fun from time to time.” He mumbled discouraged. 

To be fair, it’s not like Seungmin was ever trying to change Minho. He knew who he was from the very beginning, and he was aware that he didn’t have much authority to bring him to change. He had to admit, though, Minho was surprisingly calm lately. Not calm in a standard meaning of this word for he was always a volcano of various emotions. He was just… collected. Seungmin expected him to get in some troubles, but nothing like that happened. He was a complicated person, and maybe again, Seungmin made a judgment too quickly. 

“Don’t be a baby. Fill in the jar, and I’ll buy you a kitten or something.” Seungmin said thoughtlessly. 

Minho just stood there motionless, and Seungmin wouldn’t even notice it if not for the fact that silence in a room with three people from which two had a way too energetic nature felt rather awkward. Seungmin didn’t speak up wondering if Minho’s system just broke and how long could his lag last for.

“A real one?” He asked tonelessly.

“What?” Seungmin asked, confused.

“A real kitten?” He repeated. “A small cat?”

“Oh my God, Minho, I only said that,” Seungmin answered getting tired of trying to make him cooperate. He wondered if using force to get what he wanted was an option.

“But I want one,” Minho said quietly. 

It made Seungmin even more confused. Did he really mean it? What would he want a cat for? And most importantly; what would it mean for the cat?

“Get him one, Minnie.” Yoonah finally spoke up.

Seungmin growled wanting this topic to be over already.

“Just do what I asked you to,” He said. “We will talk about trivia later.”

  
  


***

  
  


About a week passed until Seungmin could call Yoonah quite a skilful witch. It’s not like she could be compared to any witch from a clan, but she was definitely able to defend herself from every non-magical person who’d want to punish her for being born the way she was. 

Seungmin also started teaching her reading, and like every other thing she was learning, it was going quickly and pretty faultlessly. He was sure that within a few days she’d be able to surpass her brother and he found that fact pretty amusing. 

Hyunjin was keeping them company watching Yoonah’s progress in silence. He looked proud of her, and it was giving Seungmin energy even though that day was especially horrible for him. The pain of his muscles was almost insufferable. It was making him think that he was actually lucky that he suffered so much in his life because now he was able to hide it pretty well. 

“I did better this time, didn’t I?” Yoonah interrupted his thoughts.

“Slightly,” Seungmin answered. He knew that she was just a kid, but at the same time, he was aware that he had to be strict for her to do well in case she was placed in a dangerous situation. 

“I’ll do it again,” She said without a grimace, even though her forehead was already shining with sweat. 

“Wait, Yoonah…” Seungmin stopped her. “I know we’re practising, but you put a lot of effort into technicalities. It’s important too, but that’s not everything with what you win an encounter.”

She looked at him, confused.

“What else do I need to win an encounter?” She asked. 

“Cleverness.” Seungmin said.

Yoonah seemed to be unconvinced.

“You need to train hard, but at some times you can meet opponents who are more powerful than you. If you can’t win with your physical abilities, you need to win with your brain.” Seungmin explained calmly. 

“Listen to him, Yoonah.” Hyunjin suddenly spoke up. “He may not look like one, but he’s a true fighter.”

“I don’t look like one?” Seungmin aksed jokingly, and Hyunjin laughed. “Okay, Yoonah,” He continued, turning back to the girl. “I think I know where’s the issue, so let me just correct you a bit.” 

He stood up slowly trying not to look like grandpa while doing it, but honestly, it was failing. He approached the girl and fixed her posture delicately. 

“Now, could you repeat the spell for me?” 

Yoonah did what he asked her to, and Seungmin became sure that his suspicion was correct.

“You’re mumbling this part. Here, repeat after me,” He said and went through the spell again, careful to say each word clearly. 

Yoonah started repeating, and that was the moment when he felt pain in his chest. He didn’t know why it appeared so suddenly, but it was making it hard for him to breathe. 

“Now try again.” He said, but it sounded so weak. 

He wondered if the suffering was visible on his face. He tried to watch the girl perform the spell, but his vision became blurry while the pain was growing stronger and stronger. It went from his chest to his arms and his legs, it attacked his head and eventually he couldn’t even hear what was going around him. He tried to take a step back to give Yoonah space, but his body was weak, and the last thing he was able to feel was falling. Everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *vanishes again*
> 
> jhsdg no I'm kidding, I have to stay to tell you that the next chapter is going to be the final one~ 
> 
> after that there's only an epilogue left, so yeah we're almost at the end (damn I'm going to miss updating this work)
> 
> see you next week!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! this is the final chapter, have fun~

Hyunjin’s heart stopped. 

Last few days he knew that something was wrong, he noticed that Seungmin wasn’t feeling the best, he just didn’t know, it was this bad. He knew that Seungmin wouldn’t let him help, so he just stayed impassive, trusting that he would be responsible and won’t risk his health for anything. 

He shouldn’t have trusted that. 

It was so sudden when Seungmin lost consciousness and fell to the ground. Hyunjin ran to him right away, but since he knew nothing about what was happening to him, he had no idea how to help him as well. His hand went to his face to check his breathing, but it stopped when Seungmin’s body started trembling. 

He heard Yoonah screaming for a second, Hyunjin knew her, and he was sure she only wasn’t crying yet because she was trying to stay strong for him so he wouldn’t panic even more. He thought that in fact, he’ll start crying before Yoonah will. Honestly, he was terrified. 

He held Seungmin’s head so it wouldn’t hit the ground and hoped for the convulsions to stop. His hands were shaking, he was so scared that he would lose him. He couldn’t, he couldn’t let that happened. 

Seungmin’s body calmed down a little, but Hyunjin didn’t think he was doing any better. He started choking and even before Hyunjin managed to put him on his side black streaks of blood ran down all over his face.

Black. 

Hyunjin started slapping his cheeks delicately to help him choke it out. His hands were all covered in blood, but he didn’t care.

“Come on,” He said with trembling voice. “You can’t leave me.”

Seungmin stopped choking when he stopped breathing. 

Tears finally appeared in Hyunjin’s eyes when he let go of his face and started massaging his heart. He thought it was clumsy and the fear he was feeling only intensified. It was the first time when he tried to save a person like this, he couldn’t possibly know if he was doing it right and everything depended on it. Seungmin’s life depended on it. 

Minutes were passing, Hyunjin lost sense of time. He kept trying to bring Seungmin back to life, but he was still lying there lifeless. He kept trying until he couldn’t feel his hands anymore, and panic finally overwhelmed him. He stood up with an opened mouth and tears running down his cheeks, he grabbed his hair with both his hands mindlessly, trying to catch his breath. 

He couldn’t believe what happened. He couldn’t process it, he couldn’t let Seungmin go. He meant so much to him, he was his happiness and Hyunjin could do nothing to save him. 

Through his blurry vision, he barely saw how Yoonah approached motionless body crying as well and kneeled next to him. He was so dear to her too, he was her saviour, her second brother. 

Then Yoonah took two quick breaths and hit Seungmin’s chest with her hand. It was somehow panicked, like if she didn’t know what to do and this was her last idea. It happened fast, but even Hyunjin was able to see lightning coming from her hand and embracing Seungmin from his chest to his whole body. Then, suddenly Seungmin took a deep panicked breath and started coughing. 

Hyunjin never felt more relieved, never in his life. He wiped out tears from his face with his sleeve even though not only his hands but also his face was covered in dark blood already. He came closer to Seungmin who sat up and coughed out the rest of the blood that wasn’t letting him breathe. He put his hand on his cheek and only the knowledge how much he just went through stopped Hyunjin from kissing him. He wanted to tell him how important he was to him, how much he needed him, but looking into Seungmin’s frightened eyes stopped him. Hyunjin knew that it wasn’t only about what happened to him, he knew it was something else. 

“What is it?” He whispered.

Seungmin was the one breathing heavily now. Slowly he raised his hand to show it to Hyunjin. 

Lightning was dancing between his fingers in the same way it did on Yoonah’s hand. 

  
  


***

  
  


Hyunjin helped Seungmin stand up and sit on a chair. He still was too shocked to speak, so Hyunjin wanted to give him time to calm down. He would lie if he said it wasn’t freaking him out as well, but he was doing everything to hide it from him. He brought him a glass of water, but Seungmin refused to drink. Then he brought a piece of cloth and wiped the black stains off of his face while Seungmin was still blankly staring at the floor. All of that was making him so anxious, it was painful to look at Seungmin like this. 

‘“Talk to me, Seungmin,” He said quietly, but it only made it worse. Seungmin hid his face in his hands and started crying. He was probably so shocked and so helpless that he couldn’t cope with the situation in another way. It broke Hyunjin’s heart.

“Go to your room, Yoonah,” He said to the girl. She already had enough for one day, and he didn’t want her to see Seungmin suffer more. 

“What? No!” She answered firmly. 

“Don’t argue with me.” He tried to make her obey, but maybe it wasn’t the time in which the girl would so gladly follow the rules. She answered instantly. 

“I love him too!” She yelled, and it hit Hyunjin. 

He was honestly glad that his sister accepted Seungmin, he was glad that they were getting along, and the fact that she saw him as her other brother? He couldn’t be happier. But ‘love’ was a big word. He never actually thought about it when he was thinking of Seungmin. He was aware of how dear he was to his heart, but did he love him? They went through a lot together, but to be fair, they didn’t know each other for so long, even if it felt like ages. They didn’t know this much about each other yet, even if it felt like they did. Was that possible that it was love, true love, not youthful one that he experienced once?

Seungmin finally made himself calm down and looked at Yoonah with a weak smile which didn’t reach his eyes. 

“I’m fine, Yoonah,” He said with a hoarse voice. “Thanks to you.”

“Jinnie helped you too,” Yoonah said looking somehow shy. “You just couldn’t see it.” 

“I believe he did,” He answered. “Now if you give us time to panic about it, we would be able to explain everything to you calmly later.” He added after a small pause and Yoonah laughed. 

“Okay,” She said. “I will.”

Hyunijn thought he was truly amazing. He noticed how awkward Seungmin was with Yoonah at the very beginning, and now he felt like he was even better at understanding her, than Hyunjin himself.

Yoonah left the room, and then Hyunjin sat next to him and carefully grabbed his hand. 

“So, do you have any idea what happened?” Hyunjin asked with a calming voice. 

“Maybe,” Seungmin answered and stood up. He went to a countertop and took a knife from there. For a second Hyunjin was worried that he would do something stupid, but Seungmin collected himself already, so he had no choice than to trust him. 

Seungmin came a little closer to him and then he cut his palm the same way he did to Minho some time ago. Hyunjin didn’t like seeing him harm himself, but he couldn’t stop him from doing it now. He saw black blood leaking from the wound. 

“That’s impossible,” He said shocked. 

“It is,” Seungmin answered. “But somehow it happened.” 

Seungmin sat down again, and they stayed in silence for a few minutes, they were utterly lost. Something like that had never happened, at least no one ever heard about a case like this one. How was that possible that a Silver-Blooded changed into a Black-Blooded? 

“You’ve noticed it right after getting your consciousness back, how?” Hyunjin asked. 

“Remember when I was testing the way of using magic at you? You felt nothing, but I did.” Seungmin said. “When I woke up, I felt what Yoonah probably feels, power running in my veins.” 

“You said you felt something then… So it was inside of you from the very beginning,” Hyunjin realised. 

Seungmin sighed deeply. 

“Let’s try from the start,” He said. “How are Silver-Blooded born?”

“Well, sometimes from two Red-Blooded parents but more often from a Red-Blooded mother and a Silver-Blooded father.” He gave him an answer even though he was aware that Seungmin knew all of that as well. He just probably needed to hear it from someone else to keep his thoughts arranged. 

“And can a Silver-Blooded father have a Black-Blooded daughter?” Seungmin asked.

“No.” 

“And Black-Blooded are born from red blood or red mixed with black. And red and black can’t give silver,” He said pensively. 

“Seungmin, what are you thinking about?” Hyunjin finally asked. 

Only then Seungmin looked him in the eyes. Before he was so focused on his own thoughts, maybe he was scared to face reality, so he kept his eyes on the ground. Now he looked more sure of his train of thought, even though what he said was scary.

“What would happen if a Silver-Blooded had a child with a witch?” Seungmin asked. 

Hyunjin’s eyes grew bigger. 

“It’s not possible,” He said automatically. 

“What if it is?” 

There were many reasons why this scenario was absolutely unrealistic. The most obvious one was the fact that Silver-Blooded were trained to kill witches since their childhood until adulthood. How would it be possible for a Hunter to have a child with a witch? Of course, Traitors existed, but their staying with witches was fueled by the need for power, not love. He thought it was impossible for a Hunter to love a witch until he realised his own case. He used to hunt, but he loved his little sister. Cases of two gifted kids in the family almost didn’t happen as well, but here they were. 

“Shouldn’t black and silver neutralise each other?” He asked.

“I don’t know,” Seungmin answered. “Maybe they don’t.”

Hyunjin didn’t blame him for being confused. He didn’t even know his parents, how could he predict anything like that? He almost died because the black blood he had somewhere in him started fighting the silver, it wasn’t something easy to cope with. 

Then Hyunjin realised something else. 

“Oh my God,” He said. “This is why we’re bonded.” 

“What? What do you mean?” Seungmin asked conflicted. 

“Think about it. What if for all this time we were misunderstanding the meaning of the bond? What if we’re not bonded to dragons but… to our destinies? ...And you had two.” 

Now Seungmin was the one who seemed to be shocked. 

“So this is why you can hear my signals, but I can’t hear yours… I’m bonded to you and Nocturne, but you are bonded just to Nocturne,” He said. “This is why Malgora died…” He added quietly after a small pause. Hyunjin could hear the pain in his voice. 

“Hey…” He tried to calm him down. “That’s-”

“That’s true!” Seungmin cried out distressed. “I kept thinking why she let the witches approach her, she felt them, she must have… I hated myself for letting her go so easily, but the truth is… she let that happen. That was the destiny, if she didn’t, I’d never met you, and I would die going through the change… She died so I could live...” 

“Seungmin… Neither of you had an influence on that.” Hyunjin said. He couldn’t stand watching Seungmin beating himself over something he couldn’t change. “You couldn’t cheat the destiny, it would find you anyway.”

He nodded slowly collecting himself. Hyunjin knew he was right, but he also understood that it wasn’t easy for Seungmin. Not only had he lost his dragon, but the situation he found himself into was so unreal. 

“So…” Hyunjin spoke again trying to pull him out of the grief. “Now you’re a… witcher? A wiz… a wizard. Um… a magic dude.” 

Seungmin chuckled regaining his stability. 

“Just call me a witch.” 

  
  


***

  
  


Even though Seungmin was trying not to show it, finding himself in a completely new world wasn’t that easy to him. His worldview changed radically in the last few weeks, but this was something completely different. How will his future look like now? 

_ Do I even have any future? _

The uncertainty was making him wanna cry, but he decided not to give up to this feeling. It wasn’t the right time for doubts. 

He had to admit that he didn’t miss the pain, though. Going through that change was a real nightmare, and it was a miracle that he actually survived it. Now he was feeling ridiculously strong. It was better than ever, at least from what he was able to recall. Was this how it felt when Malgora was still there? He couldn’t remember. 

He continued practising with Yoonah as soon as he regained his strength and, he noticed a few interesting things. Firstly, Yoonah’s ability to remember the spells so quickly wasn’t as unusual as he thought it was. Even now, without practising it, he was able to repeat most of the spells he had come across. He was shy to try it out together with Yoonah at first, but finally, the girl convinced him he should practise magic as well. It was a weird reality in which he was able to perform magic, but even though it felt awkward, it was great as well. He never would think that, but he was finally feeling more in the right place than ever. He always felt somehow close to magic, even if he was its opposite. He wasn’t able to explain it, but it felt right. 

The second thing he noticed was that maybe he had some sort of talent. He was good at understanding how the spells worked from the very beginning, but now when he was able to put it into practice, it actually could count as impressive. Luckily Yoonah wasn’t mad at him for surpassing her at all, the only thing that she was showing him was admiration. 

They had to practice outside again, but with time it was becoming less stressful. Maybe it was because the reality has changed and now he didn’t have to only trust in Yoonah’s ability to protect herself. Now if anything happened, he could stand by her side, and it was making him calmer. 

They were standing in front of each other, practising attack and defence. Yoonah was sending magic bullets at him, and he was successfully repelling them by raising and invisible shield with his hand. Occasionally she was sending something more demanding, like multiple blades and it was making Seungmin proud. Spells creating something from nothing were the most complicated ones, and they needed the most of practice. He was happy that Yoonah was dealing with them well, but at the same time, it needed more effort from him to protect himself from them. Raising a single shield wasn’t the best solution, he had to catch them separately. 

At one of these particular attacks, he wasn’t quick enough, and one of the blades brushed his cheek. He felt it getting wet right before it started stinging. He touched the wound with his palm involuntarily, and then he looked at his fingers covered in black. It still felt so weird. 

“Oh my God!” Yoonah cried out. “I’m so sorry, Minnie!”

She covered her mouth with her hands, looking terrified. Seungmin felt bad for worrying her.

“It’s okay, Yoonah. It was my fault.” He said. 

“Does it hurt?” She asked anxiously. 

“Yes,” Seungmin answered, being honest with her. “But I’ve been through worse before, so it’s not a big deal.”

He put his arm at the wound again, carefully sending a little bit of healing magic to it. He focused on leading it towards the cut, making the skin connect again. It was a painful practice, but it was better than waiting for it to heal on itself and leave an ugly scar on his face. 

“What have you been through before?” Yoonah suddenly asked. 

It was one of the hard questions, and even though he became closer to Yoonah, he knew he could never tell her the truth. It wasn’t something he was mad about, he didn’t even blame Hyunjin anymore. Still, it wasn’t something he could tell his sister about, especially that in a way it happened because of her. Seungmin sent her a gentle smile. 

“Your brother didn’t like me at first, and it was breaking my heart.”

Yoonah laughed. 

“Okay, you don’t have to tell me.” The girl said indulgently. “But Seungmin, you could heal your ankle with this kind of magic.”

_ Oh? _

“Sorry, I just saw you struggle with it sometimes,” She continued. “I just don’t want any of my big bros to suffer.”

Seungmin never actually thought about it. You might think it would be the first thing he’d try once he learns the healing magic, but it never actually appeared in his head. Was he really allowed to do that? For such a long time he considered the pain as a punishment for losing Malgora, but now… it wasn’t making as much sense. Did he finally deserve this kind of relief?

“Thank you, Yoonah.” He answered. “I will think about it.”

“So now my turn!” She said excitedly and prepared to take the attack. 

Seungmin started sending bullets to her calmly, from time to time splitting them into smaller elements, so she could practise defending from them separately without the risk of getting hurt. They kept going for a few minutes until he heard Hyunjin’s voice behind his back. He almost jumped in the spot. 

“What the… Seungmin are you throwing magic bullets at my sister?” He asked indignantly.

“These are bullets of light,” Seungmin answered instantly. “Harmless.”

“What?” Now Yoonah was the indignant one. “You said we were doing it for real!”

Maybe he just couldn’t do a single thing without pissing off a part of the Hwang family. 

“I won’t unnecessarily risk your life, Yoonah,” Seungmin explained. 

“But she could risk yours?” Hyunjin asked and grabbed his hand delicately. 

Even though his cheek was all clean, his fingers were still covered in black, and somehow he hadn’t noticed it before. He just stayed quiet and let Hyunjin rub his palm with his fingers before he spoke again. 

“Come with me,” Hyunjin said. “I want to show something.” 

“Take a break, Yoonah,” He said to the girl before following him. “Preferably inside.”

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin was looking at the table covered in different weapons distressed. It looked like Hyunjin collected a fair amount of it, but Seungmin wondered if he’d be able to use any of them.

“Two silver swords?” He asked, even though he could perfectly see them. 

“Yes…” Hyunjin answered awkwardly. “I bought one for you some time ago.” 

Seungmin tried to touch the blade of one of them, but it felt as if it stung his finger. 

“Ouch!” He said, taking his hand away immediately. It was so frustrating. 

“Maybe you could just touch the handle… You’d have to resign from the chain, but the sword could work,” Hyunjin tried. 

Seungmin didn’t know why but an idea of carrying silver around somehow disgusted him. It wasn’t like he was seeing everything that was silver as repulsive now, the way he felt towards Hyunjin hasn’t changed, and he had silver running through his veins. He simply couldn’t see himself with a silver sword. He wasn’t that person anymore. 

“Nah, I don’t want it,” He said. “But thank you for buying it for me, I appreciate it.” 

Seungmin kissed Hyunjin’s cheek. He felt bad for disappointing him, but it really wasn’t a good idea for him to use silver now. What if he somehow hurt himself with it? He could be still considered a young witch, it could be dangerous to him. Now it was impossible, but he knew that Hyunjin got him the sword and the whole hunting set before the change happened, so he truly appreciated his intentions. 

“Well, I still have standard weapons somewhere,” Hyunjin spoke up again. “Lucky to have a traitorous boyfriend, huh?” He joked.

“A- No. It couldn’t be right in any circumstances.” Seungmin replied. 

Hyunjin laughed. 

“Okay, I’ll bring it,” He said. “A sword and daggers?”

“Perfect.” He said, and Hyunjin headed to the door to do what he said. “Wait, Hyunjin.” Seungmin stopped him. He was a bit uncomfortable to ask. “You think they’ll be there soon, right?”

Hyunjin smiled bitterly. 

“It’s time to prepare.”

  
  


***

  
  


It was the first time Seungmin actually waited for Minho to come. Well, maybe the first time since his stay in the cell, but those were really special circumstances which he didn’t think he’d count. 

Minho entered with a bag in his hand, he was silent even though he was obviously in a good mood. He approached one of the countertops and started taking out jars filled with red from there. 

“Four?” Seungmin said disbelievingly. And God, one of them was huge. “Minho, what did you do?”

“Hey!” Minho said resentfully. “You said you won’t ask!” 

He did say that. For a long time, he was fighting with his own thoughts and contemplating whether he should ask for Minho’s help or not. Eventually, he decided that it was for a greater good. He wasn’t utterly convinced if it was actually true, but for sure he hoped for that. If they managed to stay alive so much could be changed. He didn’t plan anything yet because, to be honest, he didn’t believe in their success this much. He just knew they made few big discoveries, and it would be a real shame if this was wasted. 

Maybe they could save so many kid’s lives. This kind of change wouldn’t be easy for the simpletons, but he knew they had to at least try. So this was why he came to a conclusion that this one time he could do something this immoral. Or let Minho do it. 

“Minho, you need to stop with this,” Seungmin said. “Whatever you’re doing, you need to stop.”

Seungmin remembered the moment when he said that the clan sent him as an assassin and wondered if this was his regular occupation. Was he a mercenary? It seemed very probable, and it made him question if what he was doing was really this evil. Was he killing just anyone if the price was good, or only the people who deserved it? He didn’t dare to ask. 

Minho snorted. 

“Find me a better job then,” Minho said dismissively. 

“Bet,” Seungmin answer was firm as if he was challenging him. 

_ God, let me stay alive, and I swear I will make good use of this hopeless guy.  _

For a second Minho looked crestfallen but then he decided to just ignore it and come back to his regular shit.

“Hey, could you ask Hwang to lend me this one dagger of his? Cause it’s quite cool and I don’t really want to buy my own, and I know you have special ways on him-”

He kept talking quietly as if he wanted to keep it a secret, but Seungmin didn’t care to listen. 

‘Minho wants to borrow your dagger.’ He sent a signal to Hyunjin. 

“No!” Hyunjin’s yell could be heard from the other room. 

“What the fuck?” Minho said, shocked. “I literally whispered!”

“Yeah, but I snitched on you,” Seungmin answered cooly.

“You- How?” 

“With my thoughts.” He said, and Minho looked completely freaked out. 

Seungmin couldn’t deprive himself of the joy of playing with Minho. He just couldn’t. 

What he truly wanted to do though was slowly explaining to him everything that happened lately. He realised that if they won’t make it Minho will be the only hope for the world. And that was terrifying.

Even though he has not always trusted that Minho was reliable, he believed that somewhere deep in his hear he was a good person. He wanted to believe that he would do what is right if he was asked to. Even if it wasn’t true, Seungmin would hold onto that thought. 

“I’m bonded to Hyunjin, Minho.” He finally explained. “I can send signals to him.”

“So like…” Minho spoke up after a break he took to process that piece of information. “He’s your dragon now?”

“What? No. He’s kind of my destiny, he’s not my dragon.”

“But you do ride him, don’t you?” He said with his usual smile back on his face. 

“Out.” That was the only thing that was needed to be said in this situation, at least in Seungmin’s opinion. 

Maybe there was some other time which was destined to be the time of him being nice to Minho. 

“Fine.” He said sighing and heading to the door. “First ‘oh Minho help me!’, now ‘get out’ without reason, all I did was stating facts-”

“Out!” Seungmin yelled, sending a magic bullet after him which crashed at the door right next to his head. Minho screamed.

“What the fuck! You’re a witch now too? I swear no one ever fucking tells me shit in this house-”

“It’s not your house!” Seungmin interrupted him. 

Minho opened his mouth again, but before he managed to spit out a single word, Seungmin lifted his hand which he lit up in a fire to show him what consequences of stupidity meant. With a one more muffled scream he was gone. 

Seungmin took a deep breath before he realised one more thing. Resigned he sent another signal straight to his poor lover’s head. 

‘Mayhaps I made you a proud owner of a hole in the kitchen door.’ 

“Seungmin!” He heard a yell from behind the wall again. 

  
  


***

  
  


From what Hyunjin had told him, witches were always coming the last. For sure they’ll be there, but there would be no point in having Traitors if they didn’t fight instead of them. So, in this case, Seungmin will have to worry about them in the end. 

The Silver-Blooded Traitors were supposed to be Hyunjin’s concern, but to be honest, he was afraid that he won’t be able to deal with them. He was alone against few other dragon riders, Seungmin believed in him, but this was a big challenge. 

He didn’t know why he kept worrying about Hyunjin, while he should be worrying about himself. He was the one that was supposed to deal with the small army of Red-Blooded and then with a whole clan of witches. 

The worst part was that he had literally zero experience in this kind of fight. He could fight witches pretty well when he was bearing silver but how could he do it without it? They were practising magic for hundreds of years, and he was just a newbie. He didn’t even know if he was able to kill them. 

He couldn’t pierce them with silver, and it was making him anxious. He learnt a few killing spells that could work on a witch, but they demanded a lot of power, and for obvious reasons, he couldn’t test them. The best solution was collecting the bodies later and setting them on fire. Otherwise, the witch could come back to life. Rebirth couldn’t take place quicker than a whole day, so it wouldn’t bother him that much… If he knew he’ll be able to do that later. 

What if they lose and no one will be there to take care of the bodies? 

“Seungmin,” Hyunjin interrupted his contemplation. Probably for the best because what he was supposed to be doing now was finding more spells he could use. Seungmin looked up at him from the book he pretended to be reading. 

“You should probably convert the blood you have left now,” Hyunjin said.

Seungmin just frowned his eyebrows in question, even though he knew what it was about. 

“I think… tomorrow.” 

  
  


***

  
  


“I don’t know what you two are thinking about, but you ain’t getting me killed,” Minho said standing with crossed arms. 

“What makes you think we’d get you killed?” Seungmin asked just of pure curiosity. 

Minho pointed his finger at him. 

“You little shit, are literally loaded with blades,” He pointed at Hyunjin then, “And that little shit went with three daggers, a chain and there’s a fucking sword attached to his back. What makes you think that you’re creating a child-friendly environment?”

Seungmin wanted to point out that he didn't need a child-friendly environment but was there a sense in that? 

“We don’t want to involve you, Minho,” Hyunjin said surprisingly calmly. “I just want you to stay there and protect my sister. I can’t risk her staying alone.”

Minho was looking at him for a few seconds. He seemed to be considering it, but Seungmin felt like his dilemma was somehow fake. 

_ You’re only playing cold now, aren’t you?  _

“Fine.” He finally said. 

Seungmin expected a ‘but’ to be there, but it didn’t come, and that fact caught him by surprise. Minho just silently went to the room in which Yoonah was hiding, not before taking a sword that was supposed to be Seungmin’s from Hyunjin’s hand. 

They already hid the books, this time better than before and they hoped Yoonah didn’t know the secret. Hyunjin already said goodbye to her, and it was making Seungmin’s heart hurt. The girl seemed to be used to situations like this, and he wondered if this was how it looked like every time he had to come back to the clan. 

They were left alone now, but Seungmin couldn’t make himself speak. He just kept looking at Hyunjin’s face with worried eyes. He seemed to be calmer than him, but Seungmin knew it was just a mask. 

He approached him slowly and petted Seungmin’s cheek. Then he smiled gently and kissed him. The kiss was slow, and it was making Seungmin melt. He could read so much from it that the words weren’t needed anymore. He just wanted to stay in Hyunjin’s arms forever. 

When they parted, he still wanted more, but Hyunjin just gave him one last warm look and left to wait on Nocturne’s back. 

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin was walking around slowly, meeting the hostile looks of the villagers. At this point, they most likely associated him with Hyunjin and didn’t want to have anything in common with him. He also scared them off himself once, so all the hopes for any friendship were definitely gone now. 

Besides, as Minho said before, he was loaded with blades. He wasn’t surprised that everyone was fleeting away at his sight. Actually, he was glad about it. Maybe if they stayed at their homes, it would be safer for them. 

He didn’t know how much time passed before he finally heard the first screams. 

  
  


***

  
  


From Nocturne’s back, Hyunjin was watching how a wave of Traitors flooded the village. He wondered if he was lower would he be able to recognise their faces. So long time they worked together, and now Hyunjin’s wish was to kill them all. Maybe he should, but he didn’t feel bad about it at all. He wasn’t a person to judge people so easily, but he had a doubtful pleasure to get to know a big part of this group. They weren’t people who deserved mercy, not a single one of them. 

Maybe beside Minho. 

He couldn’t tell what was making Minho better than the others. Looking from the side, he was so similar to them. He could be so cruel, so savage… yet he was Hyunjin’s friend. There was something inside him, something that was so hard to understand, but Hyunjin thought it was worth the time that would be sacrificed to do it. He didn’t know if he’ll ever have that time, though. 

Hyunjin kept circling around, but the dragons were nowhere to be spotted. He knew they were around, he could feel it. Apparently, they didn’t plan to attack soon, and he couldn’t tell why. Things had changed since he left and the Traitors had a new leader, Hyunjin didn’t have much faith it was someone intelligent, though. Whatever their plan was, he was sure it won’t work out. 

Since the dragons didn’t attack yet, he was trying to stay helpful with the Red-Blooded at least. It wasn’t a real army, but still, there were too many people to fight by one person. Seungmin must’ve been having a hard time down there. He got lower and tried to attack them with fire. That would be a usual Traitor’s practice, he just wouldn’t be killing villagers now. The problem was that as soon as the Red-Blooded entered the village, they dispersed around the small streets and the buildings and Hyunjin wasn’t able to fight any of them without hurting the innocent. 

He was so frustrated. Seungmin was fighting for his life down there, and he was stuck in the air doing nothing. He got even lower to eventually make Nocturne land on the ground. He made few of the villagers fall while running away because of the hit of the air from under Nocturne’s wings. He didn’t care that much, because he knew the landing was for their best. He took out a sword from the scabbard attached to his back. 

_ Time to have some fun.  _

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin was watching those three from behind the building waiting for them to finally slow down. He had no idea what was with the Traitors to chase people around like wild turkeys. Were they really in such a hurry? 

He waited for the right second and made a quick step to the side to attack them with magic bullets. Left hand, right, and left again, smooth and quiet. Their fellows won’t even know why they’re dead.

It wasn’t any less weird than before, but he had to admit that he was becoming comfortable. He didn’t even miss his silver blood anymore. Even though he had no experience yet, this way of fighting was becoming more and more natural to him. 

He was sneaking between the buildings and carefully taking down some smaller groups of Traitors. They didn’t know Hyunjin had a witch on his side just yet and he was motivated to take advantage of that. He was killing quietly and then he realised that maybe he didn’t prepare well enough. Minho probably had more experience with that. Why he’d never asked for help? 

He was preparing to attack another person. The guy was facing him, and he was scared that if he’d wait too long, he would spot Seungmin and warn the others. Did some of them actually know how Seungmin looked like? Did they consider him a danger? Hopefully not. 

He already prepared magic from inside of him to come out. He was so close to raising his hand when he saw the chest of the man being pierced with a sword from behind. The man fell to the ground, and Seungmin saw Hyunjin standing behind him. He lifted his eyes and looked directly at Seungmin as if he saw where Seungmin was at the beginning. 

‘What are you doing on the ground?’ Seungmin sent to him.

Hyunjin approached him quickly. His left cheek was covered in red blood. 

“The dragons are still not there, I came down to help,” He said. 

Seungmin touched his cheek, looking at him disbelievingly. It wasn’t a gesture of affection, he saw blood, and he wanted it. 

“It’s dangerous.” He said automatically, he didn’t even know why. 

Hyunjin just looked at him ironically and moved forward.

“Come on.” He said, and Seungmin followed. 

Not much time passed before the first Traitor approached him. It took him only three quick moves to finish him. The Traitor wasn’t skilled, but it showed Hyunjin’s abilities anyway. What he said was true, he was good, but maybe Seungmin wouldn’t call him spectacular. Professional was more appropriate. Precise. Maybe their styles just differed. Seungmin was dynamic and unpredictable, Hyunjin was careful and calm. The only thing he could say was that he would only take two moves in that one, but he couldn’t state if it was good or bad. 

They moved to the open area, but Seungmin tried not to get stressed out. The Traitors kept running at them one after another as if they were telling each other where Seungmin and Hyunjin were. He saw Hyunjin swinging his sword in the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t focus on it too much. There were more and more people surrounding them, and Seungmin had to stay quick. He was crashing their skulls with magic bullets one after another, he couldn’t let too many of them got close to Hyunjin. They cooperated efficiently, few times Hyunjin managed to get down in the right moment to allow Seungmin to shoot the people behind him. But there were still more and more of them. He was struggling, and he noticed Hyunjin struggle too. He was dripping with sweat trying to push back the attacks, but Seungmin wasn’t sure how much he still could take. Finally, he began to feel exhausted as well. 

He rose up a shield which blew from his body and surrounded both him and Hyunjin. Hyunjin was surprised at the beginning, especially when the shield pushed back the three people that were standing around him. It seemed to strike them as well, and they could see their bodies hitting the ground. 

They were safe inside, but it didn’t make them any less surrounded. The Traitors kept gathering, partly because they saw Hyunjin inside and partly because they saw a man performing magic. They were like vultures circling around an animal and waiting for it to die. Instead, in this case, they were waiting for the shield to go down. 

“Call Nocturne,” Seungmin said with a troubled voice. Maybe he could do that himself, he was just afraid if he was able to focus on two things at one time. 

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Do it.” The sweat was running down his forehead.

Hyunjin seemed to do what he was asked to, but they still had to wait. Luckily, the dragon stayed around and soon they saw him gliding across the sky. The Traitors didn’t have the time to spot the danger and run away, very quickly they stood in the fire, and the air was pierced with frightful screams of agony. Seungmin was afraid he won’t be able to hold the shield for long enough for the massive fire breath to stop. He screamed when he fell down to one knee, trying to keep it up when the fire was surrounding them. It was hot inside as well, but it was a very small struggle compared to the one of surrounding them Traitors. 

Finally, Nocturne flew away and right after all of the Seungmin’s power was gone. The shield fell, and the smell of burned bodies filled their nostrils. Other people would probably throw up, but sadly the two of them were so used to it. 

Seungmin finally took his sword in his hand. Since he had no power left, he had to come back to the methods he knew. 

“Let’s part and stay hidden.” He said to Hyunjin and headed forward without waiting for an answer. 

He couldn’t wait to bath in some Traitor’s blood. 

  
  


***

  
  


Hyunjin was absorbed in killing other Traitors one by one until in the distance he heard a roar of the dragon which wasn’t his.

_ Finally.  _

He came into an open area, not caring about being spotted anymore. He called for Nocturne and didn’t wait long until the beast landed next to him. He climbed on his back and made him rise into the air. It was Hyunjin’s favourite part of having a dragon. Even when he used to hunt, nothing could be compared to this. When he was observing the ground becoming farther and farther away, he was feeling invincible. 

He was looking ahead trying to locate the clan’s dragon until he heard a quiet growl behind his back. It was muffled by the blast of the air and weakened by the effort the dragon has made to fly, but Hyunjin’s Hunter ears were able to hear it. He twisted his body to look ahead and saw a beast following him. 

“Fuck,” He whispered to himself. 

It was never good to have an attacking dragon behind you, especially if your dragon was slow. Nocturne wasn’t as bad as you may think, but considering that the rest of the dragons of the clan had an average size, his lack of speed and flexibility was quite a disadvantage. 

Hyunjin tried to change his position by turning to the side, but he didn’t even notice how two more dragons appeared near him in the sky. A few seconds after he was surrounded and on top of that, quite surprised. 

He remembered the clan having only four dragons in general. He left taking Nocturne with him, and Maroon was gone. He wasn’t dead but deprived of the rider, so he wouldn’t be going back to the clan. Hyunjin had never seen the new dragon. Did that mean that the clan found a new dragon rider, just for this attack? He had no idea he pissed them off this much. 

Thinking about this, he should have. He was the Traitors’ leader, and then he cheated them, robbed and run away. Witches were witches, but it must have hurt the Traitors’ pride. 

He gulped realising the fact he didn’t let sink in before. They couldn’t just push back the attack to be safe. They had to destroy this clan. 

Hyunjin tried to focus on what he was doing now. He cut the air to the right, going under one of the dragons he had on his sight. Going above was safer, but going under was way more unpredictable, and from what he partly learned from Seungmin, this was what was needed to win a difficult fight. It didn’t work out, though, as the dragons quickly came back to their places. They seemed to be planning to get behind him again, and Hyunjin decided to risk again. He speeded up, he made Nocturne fly as quick as he was able to. He knew that it would be too tiresome for the dragon and he couldn’t keep it up for too long. He purposely let the riders of the hostile dragons do what they planned but until they noticed what happened and speeded up themselves Nocturne was out of their fire’s reach. When they started shortening the distance, he suddenly slowed down, it looked like he almost stopped in the air. The other riders had no time to react and got ahead of him unwillingly. Hyunjin had just a few seconds to make Nocturne treat them with his fire breath. He heard a singular scream which lasted just for a moment. So he got one. The rider was gone, but the dragon remained untouched, just as Seungmin would like. 

This made Hyunjin wonder why they didn’t make a single attempt to hurt Nocturne. The fights between riders usually relied on killing the other dragon. It was cruel, but it was the simplest way to win. The colours left Hyunjin’s face when the realisation hit him. So this was why they put so much effort into this attack. They didn’t want to let Nocturne go in any way. He was too eerie, too spectacular. They planned on finding a way to make use of him. 

It made Hyunjin feel sick. In these circumstances, he knew he couldn’t take risks anymore. He could accept the thought of losing, but he couldn’t let Nocturne meet such a terrible fate. 

He couldn’t do that alone.

He descended again and started looking to the ground. It didn’t take him much to find Seungmin, somehow he always knew where to look for him. He took on landing and noticed that the other dragons didn’t follow his footsteps. It was no surprise, it wouldn’t be a very wise choice for them. 

Hyunjin landed right when Seungmin was preparing to fight a large group of Traitors running at him. Hyunjin found this encounter impossible to win, but when it came to fighting, he didn’t think Seungmin was sane. 

_ How are you still not dead with this confidence of yours? _

They all got startled seeing the beast landing next to him and stopped, but Hyunjin didn’t give them time to run away. He sent a signal to Nocturne and right after they were gone in a wave of fire.

He looked at Seungmin’s face, and he had the guts to look disappointed. 

Insane kid. Truly insane.

“What do you want?” He asked loudly. Hyunjin watched drops of blood slowly disappearing from his forehead. So he had some fun there already. 

“Come,” Hyunijn answered calmly but audibly. 

Seungmin’s eyes grew a little bigger before he made a hesitant step towards the dragon. 

  
  


***

  
  


Seungmin remembered climbing on Nocturne’s back when he was sick, but that time it felt completely different. He wasn’t sure why he was feeling nervous now. Honestly, even after Hyunjin said he liked him back, Seungmin didn’t expect a situation like this. He knew him, he was quite possessive when it came to Nocturne. Seungmin almost snorted, thinking that he shared his body with him, but he wouldn’t share his dragon. At least that was what he was sure about before. What change occurred in Hyunjin’s mind?

When Nocturne lifted in the air Seungmin gasped. 

_ You will never ride a dragon again.  _

He couldn’t help it, he just started laughing. 

“Enjoying yourself there?” Hyunjin shouted to him. 

‘Shut up.’ He sent to him not wanting to fight with the blowing air. 

Finally, the two dragons were on both of their sides. Seungmin didn’t have to ask what to do. He guessed that Hyunjin wanted to get rid off the problem of being overnumbered as quickly as possible. He didn’t question it, whatever made him stop risking so much, it wasn’t a bad outcome.

Hyunjin was trying to change the position, but the other dragons weren’t letting him. They couldn’t make their dragons attack Nocturne, it was too dangerous for them. They both could feel the other riders trying to get behind them, Hyunjin just couldn’t let that happen. It was just a moment when Hyunjin managed to get slightly above the dragons, but Seungmin didn’t waste it. He jumped off right away. If he was still Silver-Blooded, he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it. He would probably miss or even break a bone or two while landing on the other dragon’s back. Luckily for him, it wasn’t the case anymore. 

He controlled the air slightly to make himself land it the correct spot. He thanked himself for learning the spell, which controlled wind. It was a complicated one, and he was just at the beginning of the study, but for now, it was enough. 

He saw the rider struggle to turn away, it wasn’t easy to move your position while sitting on a flying dragon. Again, Seungmin wouldn’t be able to do much if he was a Hunter. Now, he didn’t really have to bother. The poor thing almost managed to face him, but he cut his sufferings with one movement of his hand. He waved it to the side, and the rider’s body followed the direction pointed by his fingers. He heard his screaming only for a second. 

After that, he jumped off again. He didn’t even have to look down, he just knew Nocturne was there. He didn’t know how, but he could feel it. 

He landed on his back in the same way he landed on the hostile dragon; on his knees leaning on his hands. He managed to sit then and made an effort to get closer to Hyunjin. 

“You’re crazy, you know that?” Hyunjin shouted to him again. 

Seungmin just smiled. He knew. 

  
  


***

  
  


They lost the last dragon from their sight, and Hyunjin decided to get him on the ground again. It was fun while it lasted, but now he had to focus on his task again. He was sure they already got rid off most of the Red-Blooded, he was pretty sure that a lot of them run away as well. He knew what was happening next. 

He was hiding behind a building again when he saw them. Five of them, walking, or maybe more like crawling along the street like a bunch of giant snails. Seungmin couldn’t believe how lucky he was.

He showed himself just for a second, and before they managed to react, he sent a swarm of small blades on them. They fell to the ground, and he only had to finish off one of them when the blades went through. He guessed that their precious Traitors didn’t inform any of them that there was another witch in the village. He knew he’ll have to find and burn their bodies, but it was a problem to solve for later. 

He hid behind another building and started looking around again. He knew he most likely won’t manage to find and surprise another group, he needed to stay careful. He kept creeping between the houses. The next one he spotted he killed by throwing his dagger at her, he knew he had to save his power. Another one he killed with a power bullet. 

He might’ve not been a Hunter anymore, but somehow he kept the instinct of finding witches. He didn’t know how big this clan was, but from the pace at which all of this was going, he guessed it was on a good path.

The next witch Seungmin spotted was quite far away, so he tried to shoot her. He cursed when he noticed that he missed. The bullet crashing a wall next to her head, of course, caught the witch’s attention. She turned in his direction, looking for him. 

“Fuck it.” He said and started running. 

He knew that his sword wasn’t silver and he couldn’t protect himself from magic anymore, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t just blood what was making you a Hunter. 

The witch screamed and sent a bullet at him. He avoided it throwing his body to the side. He probably tore his skin in few places while falling, but he didn’t have time to worry about it. He was back at his feet right away and kept running until another attack sent him to the ground again. While standing up, he took off his sword from the scabbard and ran again. He was so close already. The next attack was missed. Seungmin whirled getting to her and cut her body open starting with the shoulder and finishing at the hip. 

He was glad about succeeding, but his happiness didn’t last for long. He felt another witch on his side, and he whirled again throwing a dagger. He fell to his knees, but his bruises were just another concern for later. 

He couldn’t even take a breath before other witch appeared on the opposite side. He sent a bullet, but he was too tired already, its power made him fell. He made himself exposed so unnecessarily. 

  
  


***

  
  


Hyunjin finally found him. He was on the ground, off his dragon, looking like he was getting ready to run away. If Hyunjin just wanted to burn him, he could, he was standing too far away from his dragon to make it on time. But Hyunjin knew this one. For some reason, he wanted to look him in the eyes once again. 

He made Nocturne descend. He could try to run, but he found himself under Nocturne’s claws anyway. He hopped off his back and heard the other dragon’s desperate roar. He couldn’t get to Hyunjin, as Nocturne attacked him right away. He didn’t get the order to kill the dragon, he just kept him away. 

Hyunjin got closer to the rider lying on the ground. He looked at the damage Nocturne’s claws made. He knew he won’t make it. He looked at his face tilting his head. 

The guy, Eadric, laughed desperately. He couldn’t catch his breath, but he forced himself to speak. 

“You were just one big scam from the beginning, weren’t you?” 

Hyunjin crouched next to him.

“Isn’t it what you are as well?” Hyunjin asked, not wanting an answer. 

“I may be on what you call a bad side, but I’m at least loyal to it.” The pain was making it hard for Eadric to speak. Hyunjin took his dagger out of his sheath. He wanted to end his suffering, and he knew that Eadric wanted it as well. 

“I was never on your side,” Hyunjin said quietly. 

Not breaking the eye contact, he took his breath away. 

  
  


***

  
  


Hyunjin knew he was needed somewhere else, but he couldn’t just keep going without checking on her. His heart was beating fast when he was standing in front of the door of his house. It stopped when he saw a body lying in the corridor. He stepped above it and opened the door of the kitchen he saw a few more bodies and run to Yoonah’s room. He couldn’t believe what he saw there. 

“Jinnie!” Yoonah shouted out right away when she saw him. “Jinnie I’m winning.” 

“No, you’re not,” Minho answered with a sulky voice. Which probably meant she was. 

They were both sitting on the ground playing cards as if nothing happened. Minho still had blood on his forehead. There was as bloody sword lying next to him.

“You two are hopeless,” Hyunijn said heading back again. 

Time to do some Hunter shit.

  
  


***

  
  


It was going on for so long he didn’t even feel alive anymore. He was scared that he would collapse and won’t even notice when he loses. Witch after witch they were coming. Sometimes they were coming in groups, and Seungmin was doing well at shuffling between blocking the multiple attacks coming at him at once and taking down the witches, one after another. 

To be honest, he hadn’t known he was able to survive this long. After some time they were coming after longer breaks, he could finally take a breath between the fights.

He saw one more witch looking as if she was hiding from him. He knew her. He was fighting with her before. He was in a group, but she lost her power and managed to run away. Did she also manage to regain it?

Seungmin had no energy to run anymore. He just walked towards her, his mind was giving up. He wasn’t that far away, but she had a lot of time to win over him anyway. She didn’t attack so quickly though, she must have carried a small amount of the power as well. 

Finally, she attacked. It was a power bullet split into small parts. He tried to block them, but one managed to crush on his shoulder. He screamed in pain, feeling it dislocate. He sent the rest of his power just to make his arm work. He couldn’t fix it now, and he couldn’t stop the pain. 

The witch was defenceless now, and she tried to run away again. Seungmin made an attempt to stop her with throwing his last dagger with his other hand. He didn’t make it precisely, though, and it made the witch fall, but it didn’t kill her.

Seungmin approached her slowly, knowing she has no energy to run away anymore. He could tell how she was feeling. 

He took out his sword from the scabbard, but before he made the blow, he heard the witch laugh. He pressed the tip of the blade to her neck. 

“Say what you know, and I’ll make it quick,” He said, trying to sound firm even though he was almost breathless. 

“You failed boy,” she spitted out with a disgusting smile. “You two won’t protect this little treasure of yours. It’s too late now.”

Her words made Seungmin’s heart stop. 

Yoonah. 

  
  


***

  
  


He ran into the house short of breath. He felt his lungs were on fire, he honestly had no idea if he was able to force his body to move anymore. His head was spinning, but he didn’t care.

“Come, little boy,” He heard the witch’s screeching voice.

Fuck, so she was there. If he knew, he would at least try to come in quietly. The panic made him blind, and he forgot to focus and try to feel if the witch was inside. It was too late now. 

“Leave your sword,” He heard her again. “And lift your hands.”

He did what she wanted him to. Slowly he walked into the room and felt panic rising up again at what he saw there.

Minho was lying on the ground, his head was surrounded by a pool of blood. Next to him, the witch was standing, with her hand around Yoonah’s neck. 

He expected the girl to be covered in tears, but she didn’t shed even one. Even in a situation like this, she managed to stay brave. 

Seungmin knew she shouldn’t be. It was the Mother. 

‘To the house, quick. A witch inside.’ He sent to Hyunjin. 

He had no more power. He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t even try.

“So, will you tell me now where I can find my property?” She asked. 

“I don’t know,” Seungmin said. If he knew, he would tell her right away. He wouldn’t risk Yoonah’s life for anything. Unluckily, what he said was true.

The next thing he felt was a pain going through his body as if he was struck by lightning. It made him scream, but he couldn’t do anything besides giving up to it. 

“Oh, don’t worry,” The witch spoke up again. “I will play with you just to get some fun. Then I will take care of the girl.”

  
  


***

  
  


Hyunjin was trying to enter quietly, but he felt like his heartbeat could make him fail at any moment. He carefully entered the kitchen and crouched next to one of the bodies left there. He soaked both of his hands in it, he tried to make his hands as wet as possible. Maybe it was repulsive, but he honestly couldn’t care less. He had to take every chance, every possibility. 

“I can hear you, Hwang. You may stop sneaking now.”

Her voice almost made his blood freeze. It was the only person he was afraid of in the clan, the only that could be dangerous to him. She wasn’t much less mindless than the rest of the witches, but she had power, she had control. 

He made his way to the room with his hands up, afraid to make her angry. He was scared, he couldn’t lie and say that he wasn’t. When he saw her, she smiled, and Hyunjin felt the hatred growing in his heart. He couldn’t even look at his sister’s face. He couldn’t look at Minho.

“Now, you’ve got something to tell me. I’m afraid your friend couldn’t.”

He looked to the side to see Seungmin. He looked so exhausted, Hyunjin couldn’t even describe it. He didn’t even want to know what this bitch did to him. He wanted to tear her to pieces.

Slowly, he tried to get closer to Seungmin. He just couldn’t make the witch suspect anything. Did she know that Seungmin was a witch too? He thought it was very likely. He doubted that she was aware that he could convert blood through his skin, though. The witches forgot about it a long time ago, they didn’t find it useful.

His hand was a little bit above Seungmin’s now. He just couldn’t make the blood drip. It was getting him so frustrated. 

_ Come on. We’re so close. _

“You’ll be silent now? You rat, I’ll get you to speak.”

He felt a terrible pain going through his body. He was strong enough to hide his sufferings, he knew he was. He just couldn’t miss that occasion.

He screamed and bent his body, making it look way worse than it actually was. He heard Yoonah scream along with him, but he couldn’t worry about it, not now. He tried to wave his arms as much as he could. 

Finally, few drops reached Seungmin. He reacted so quickly that the witch wouldn’t even have time to worry about that. The blood disappeared from his skin instantly, and he flexed his body, sending something that looked like a ball of light from it. Hyunjin thought it would hit the witch, but it hit Yoonah instead. 

Hyunjin almost fell due to panic, but in the next second, he realised what happened. Seungmin fell to the ground lifeless, but Hyunjin had no time to feel the heartbreak. He sent the energy he got to Yoonah, he trusted her. He saw something forming in her hand, but he couldn’t even look at it properly before she turned around with another scream and pierced the witch’s chest with it. Everything happened so fast that the witch couldn’t even try defending herself. She fell to the ground with a grimace of shock fixed on her face. 

He knew that Yoonah couldn’t possibly create silver, but he couldn’t worry about it now, as long as the witch was harmless. He noticed how Yoonah approached Minho, putting her hands on his head gently, trying to fix his skull with the power she was getting from the very same blood that was leaking from it. He couldn’t focus on it as well. 

He approached Seungmin slowly. He was trembling, he could feel it, as clearly as he could feel tears running down his cheeks. 

Some time ago he thought he lost him, but he got him back, and he couldn’t be more grateful. But he didn’t know it was only temporary.

He caressed his cheek when he was lying there, all pale and motionless. They went through so much together, they fought, hurt each other, then they were fighting side by side. He remembered when Seungmin hated him, and now he gave up everything, he gave himself away just for him, for Yoonah. Just when they were so close to being happy together. 

He put his head on his lap and started caressing his hair. 

“Come back to me, baby. One more time.” He whispered, but it wouldn’t make Seungmin react. 

“You’re such a crybaby,” Yoonah said, leaving the room. 

He couldn’t believe in her insensitivity, but for now, he didn’t even care. He heard Minho groaning weakly behind his back, but it meant nothing to him as well. All he wanted to do now was to disappear. To take Seungmin’s sacrifice on himself. 

Then Yoonah came back with a jar of blood Seungmin left in the house for an ‘unexpected crisis’. She splashed his face like it was nothing and turned on her heel to check on Minho again. 

Hyunjin’s jaw dropped when the blood started slowly disappearing from his skin. 

Seungmin slowly opened his eyes and gave him a weak laugh when he saw Hyunjin’s face. 

“You were crying after me again?” He said teasingly even though his voice was hoarse. 

Hyunjin sniffed watching him, even though he was so miserable now, he still looked like everything Hyunjin ever wanted. He looked like safety, warmth, he looked like home. He felt like he could just get lost in him, as if he could drown in his eyes and his smile. 

“I love you, okay?” He said. “You can’t go anywhere.”

Seungmin gave him a weak, yet the prettiest smile he ever saw, and he didn’t have to ask to know what was going on in his heart and his mind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay sooo
> 
> I really hope you liked it and you're happy with the ending
> 
> this work is kind of my firstborn and it's very important to me and I'll miss updating it soooo much 
> 
> thank you sm for reading it <3 (and hopefully see you next week for the epilogue)


	9. Epilogue

Minho knocked on the door and came in without waiting for an answer. Immediately over a dozen of curious eyes of pupils turned into his direction. The attention that the girls were giving him was kinda creeping him out. He turned away to look at Mentor Sechan.

“Headmaster,” Mentor Sechan spoke up looking distressed. “How can I help you?” 

In some places, it’s good to be feared of. Especially if you need people to listen to you. He didn’t know how he earned the opinion he had in the school he was managing, though. He remembered that people started to look at him weirdly after that one time, when he walked across the corridor, eating his breakfast. Okay, maybe he was all covered in blood as well, but he was the one managing the blood supplies, wasn’t he? People would be so illogical sometimes.

He considered his job pretty easy and quite fun. There was only one school he had to fully manage, and it was the first one created, the main one, so it was pretty cool. Beside it, he designed the system of supplying all of the Schools of Witchcraft across the country with blood used for practising. After the first year, it didn’t require a lot of effort from him, though. 

“Come to my quarters when you’re finished,” Minho said.

“Y-yes, Sir.” Mentor Sechan stuttered out.

Minho fought the desire to smirk and headed there himself. 

“Hello, Seungmin,” He said, passing by the portrait hanging on the corridor and gave a full smile to the road ahead of him. People were not so discretely fleeting from his way every time, especially when he was greeting this cursed painting, which he always did. Seungmin hated that one, and every similar one hanged in the rest of his schools. Minho liked them, though. Seungmin was pretty fun, why wouldn’t the paintings of him be fun? 

He opened the door of his quarters and almost stumbled over Suri. 

“Hey, you can’t do that,” He said and picked up the orange kitten from the floor with one hand. “I know you’re new here, and you missed me, but I don’t want to accidentally hurt you when you wait under this door.” He lifted her above his own face to look at her for a second. He gave her a quick peck on her nose to which she answered with meowing. 

Most of his cats were orange, but some were black or tabby, and Honey, ironically, wasn't orange but white. His quarters were huge, so he could allow himself to have quite a big family in there. He was thankful to Seungmin for this one, he was actually thankful for a lot of things. He still couldn’t believe that he took into consideration a place for him since the very beginning of his revolution, since he started building his first school. And on top of that, he made it absolutely fantastic. 

He put Suri on the ground and made a quick check on the rest of his small friends. All of them were stray once, besides the first one, which he got as a gift. Not everyone liked the fact that he kept them in the school (jealous bitches), but no one would have the courage to be even mean to them if they came across one. He suspected that his cats were one of the reasons some of the first graders started calling him The Big Wizard, even though he was Red-Blooded. He was bursting out laughing every time he heard that nickname, and the fact that the person that got caught at using it was going all pale was making it even funnier.

The very first room of his quarters functioned as his office, with a huge desk in the middle of it and some shelves behind it. This place also had a nickname among students (and Mentors), but Minho didn’t bother to remember it. 

He sat next to his desk, put his legs on it and waited. Not more than three minutes later, he heard knocking. He smiled. 

_I knew it._

“Come in.” He said, trying to sound cold. 

Mentor Sechan did as he was asked to, but he didn’t even manage to close the door when Minho spoke again. 

“Finishing the lesson earlier, aren’t we?” He said and watched his eyes growing bigger. “I know your schedule, I _made_ it.” 

“S-Sir, I-” Mentor Sechan started, but Minho interrupted him with laughter. 

“I’m only teasing you, I know you wanted good coming here earlier,” Minho explained. Mentor Sechan looked annoyed, but Minho didn’t care that much. “Do you know why are you here?” He continued. 

“Headmaster, I honestly don’t know. Am I using too much blood? Sir, my lessons are really demanding, I can’t do that without using some of the supplies.”

“I actually wanted to ask you if you need more of it,” Minho said. “This is the first school in the country, in the world actually, and I intend it to be the best one.”

“Oh,” was all that Mentor Sechan managed to say. 

“You’re smart and you have the experience.” Minho said, but what he really had in mind was ‘you’re quite old so you should know some things’. “The new year is coming and I want you to plan some of the goals for it. You can involve other Mentors, I don’t care. Consult me when you’re finished.”

“Headmaster, I don’t think I’m able to-”

“I’m not asking if you’re able to. I’m ordering you to do it.” He said. 

“Yes, Sir.” Mentor Sechan answered resigned.

“You are dismissed now,” Minho said and watched him giving him a respectful bow and leaving. 

He was just playing cruel, in fact, he didn’t need a plan made by Mentors, this one he intended to do by himself. All of that was to recognise the Mentors’ needs, he was hoping to read from it things that they would be scared to ask for face to face. He was planning to give the same job to Mentor Minhwa later, saying that he doubted Mentor’s Sechan competency. He was afraid that Mentor Sechan wouldn’t be sensitive enough to examine what the female part of the cadre needed to be changed. 

Minho stood up and headed to the other room to pour himself a glass of wine. His hand stopped in the middle of the action when he remembered he had an inspection planned in half an hour. He sighed and put out another glass which he filled with wine and drank along with the first one. 

He headed to the front door not long after, as the school was big and sometimes it needed a lot of time to go from one point to another. When he stepped outside, it was just in time to meet his favourite inspector.

“Sungie!” He said, opening his arms. 

“I told you not tho call me that in front of the pupils,” Jisung said but from the smile on his face, Minho guessed he wasn’t mad about it at all. To be honest, there weren’t a lot of students outside at that moment anyway.

“Weren’t the pupils supposed to trust you?” Minho asked. “Sungie sounds totally trustable.” 

Jisung rolled his eyes. 

“Anyway, where’s your second half?”

“She’s already inside,” Jisung answered. “We’re only here for a moment, these are the last inspections this year, and we still have quite a lot of places to go. Your school never had any negligences anyway.” 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m perfect,” Minho said, and Jisung laughed, God knows why. “It’s a pity though, I missed your dumb ass.” 

“We’re planning to pay Seungmin and Hyunjin a visit, grab some beer maybe. I suppose you’ll be there?” Jisung said. “Since you’re always there,” He added. 

“When? In the evening?” He asked. 

“Yeah.”

“Better, I’ll be there in an hour,” Minho said, and Jisung laughed again. 

“Cut the cord, boy.” 

Minho shrugged and turned his head towards the door when he heard it opening. 

“Good news, love! Minho still doesn’t harass male students.” Nada said to Jisung instead of giving Minho a greeting. She leaned on her boyfriend’s shoulder and looked at Minho with a bright smile. 

“Told you I’m flawless, but you two keep coming,” Minho said with a fake annoyance. 

Actually, he liked their visits. He knew that they used to be Seungmin’s friends, but something bad happened, and they only reunited about two years ago. Minho didn’t know what was with the Seungmin’s thing with hiring everybody he knew (Minho heard that he even made his uncle a Mentor of Potions, but not in the school that was anywhere near), but he didn’t have much problem with that. Jisung and Nada were a part of a bigger system, for they controlled not only Schools of Witchcraft, but Hunter Schools as well. The second ones didn’t disappear, ‘cause the world had always been cruel and always will be. Clans still existed, but due to Seungmin and Hyunjin’s actions, their number decreased already and continued to do so. Hunters’ role was slowly changing into guardians, the name remained though. 

Anyway, Jisung and Nada focused on people who went or were about to go through the change. They were organising it to be safe and controlled the schools for any sort of discrimination. There were still very little of non-male students in the Hunter Schools and non-female students in the Schools of Witchcraft, but their number was increasing, and someone had to be there for them since the uncommon was always more likely to be misunderstood. 

Minho finally parted with the couple and headed to meet Seungmin and Hyunjin, as he said he would. The way there wasn’t taking him this much (though Seungmin deciding on a location hoped it would be taking him long). When he got there, he just opened the door without knocking and went to the kitchen, where he usually could find one of the three residents (and their food). Just as he predicted he found Seungmin there, cutting vegetables in front of the old countertops. Honestly, Minho didn't get how they literally had more money than they would ever need but still were totally happy with living in this shed. 

“My favourite!” Minho exclaimed and went to give Seungmin a bone-crushing hug followed by a sloppy kiss on the cheek. 

“I told you not to do that. Like _millions_ of times.” Seungmin said, wiping his cheek off with disgust. Such an ungrateful kid.

“And I told you you’ll never escape it when you got me my first baby,” Minho answered, and Seungmin rolled his eyes. “Besides, you let him do that!” Minho pointed at Hyunjin, who just entered the room holding the said baby in his arms. 

“He’s not a drooling squid.” Seungmin murmured, but Minho ignored him. 

“Speaking off, why is your ‘baby’ always in our house?” Hyunjin spoke up. 

“Ask him why is his ass always in our house,” Seungmin added. 

“Firstly, he has a name, and this name is Norman,” Minho answered. “And secondly he can be here, he has a license.” 

He knew Hyunjin was faking his annoyance, he was sure that he loved Norman as well. How could you not love Norman? 

“Don’t even start with that ‘he can do everything’ thing”. Hyunjin said, handing him the black kitty. 

Norman was an adventurous type, he couldn’t make him just stay at his place. Their house was the first place he had stayed, so maybe this was why he kept coming back. 

“I won’t, even though it’s true,” Minho said. “Where’s Yoonah?”

“I don’t know, probably doing something I didn’t let her do,” Hyunjin answered impassively. 

“I’m literally here,” Yoonah said, and Minho wasn’t sure if his eyes cheated him or did she just materialised there. She looked at him then. “Hi, uncle.”

“See? Eavesdropping.” Her brother commented. 

Yoonah grew up to be a special young woman. She was unique since she was a kid, but now she brought it to a new level. She was powerful, and she looked intimidating, even though she was loving inside. She could usually be seen in a black, frayed skirt which was reaching half of her calves o the back and to her knees on her front. She was wearing as frayed fishnets and massive boots. Her sweater was black as well, and it was long-sleeved even though it wasn’t covering her belly. The most interesting, though, was her jewellery which she was wearing on her hands. Thin chains, going from her wrists and entwining between her fingers. It had little purple stones attached in a few places. Minho knew it was a gift from Seungmin for her fourteenth birthday, but he didn’t know what it was destined for. All he was sure about was that the look of a true witch was the thing that made her probably even more feared in the village than Seungmin and Hyunjin were. And maybe that she 'rose from the grave'.

Minho admired her for her originality, and that’s why he was taking her to his school from time to time. Of course, she didn’t need to attend it (please, she was living with Kim Seungmin himself), but she was inspiring. Not only by her looks, the way she moved, the way she talked. It was the person she was. 

Minho didn’t want his students to just repeat what they were told, he wanted them to look for the way to be themselves, to find themselves in the new world that was coming. Yoonah couldn’t do that for them, but she could show them that it was possible. It wasn’t only Seungmin who was there to change the world. 

“So you guys have any plans for today? Minho asked. “Some hunting? Finding other Protectors?” He looked at Yoonah. “Burning something?” 

Yoonah crossed her arms. 

“Your hair is next if you won’t shut it.” Minho gulped. He loved that girl to death, just like he loved her brothers, but he definitely didn’t want to get on her bad side. He still remembered how she put a silencing spell on him, and Seungmin noticed it after twenty minutes, admitted it after two hours and took it down after four.

“Nothing for today,” Seungmin answered. “You want something?” 

“Ah yeah, Jisung and Nada are coming over.”

Seungmin and Hyunjin exchanged meaningful looks. The actual meaning of those looks escaped Minho’s understanding though, so he just waited for them to enlighten him. 

“I guess we should go to the other room, Yoonah,” Seungmin said, and the girl nodded and left like a normal human being, whereas Seungmin vanished in a dark mist like a freaking weirdo he is. 

_Fucking witches._

Minho was left with Hyunjin, and he wondered if he actually wanted to know the cause of all of this. 

“Come, help me out,” Hyunjin said when he continued to cut the vegetables Seungmin left on the countertop. 

“No, thank you,” was his answer, but he got closer to him to watch the somehow calming moves he was doing with the knife. 

“Remember when last time Nada brought her friend along?” He said, focused on the cutting desk, but if he looked at Minho, he would see his quizzical look. “Sophia,” He added. 

“I don’t care about her name,” Minho said uninterested. 

“You see, Nada hoped you would,” Hyunjin said, and it made Minho even more lost. 

“Why would I? There was nothing interesting about her.”

“Hm,” Hyunjin stopped his work and turned to face him. His eyes looked soft and caring, and Minho entirely despised it. “Minho, Nada brought a friend because she hoped you two would like each other, same with the other one she took with her some time ago. But you know her, her thinking is sometimes simple. She made an assumption, but maybe she didn’t guess your interests.”

“My…” He spoke again with furrowed eyebrows. “Well, she definitely didn’t guess my interests, since I’ve never been interested in boring people.” 

Hyunjin laughed quietly but right after he got serious again. 

“Listen, you’ve been my friend for many years, so I’m just gonna put it straight. What I meant is that she didn’t know if you were interested in girls, boys, or any other persons,” Hyunjin explained. 

“That’s weird, I’m interested in anyone, boy or girl. Like you, Seungmin, Yoonah-”

“Minho, no.” Hyunjin interrupted him firmly. 

He put his face in his hands for a few seconds and then he looked at him and tried once again. 

“We were actually planning to tell her to stop bringing people with her with that purpose. But I wanted to ask for your opinion first... We know she meant no harm, but… We just don’t want you to be lonely.” 

Minho was still confused. Why would he assume he was lonely? That was ridiculous. 

“But I don’t feel lonely, ever. I’ve got a family.” He said, hoping to end this weird conversation as soon as possible. 

“I know how much you love them, but you can’t spend your whole life only with your cats.”

“I meant you.” 

“Oh,” Hyunjin said, and the look on his face somehow changed, but Minho couldn’t encode it. “But you’re sure this is enough? We just want you to feel loved, to feel complete.”

Finally, Minho laughed. 

“You’re so dumb, Hwang. Look at me, I am so complete. I got everything, and you can’t even see it. I will never feel unloved because I’ll always have myself, and I will always love me. What, are you five?”

Hyunjin analysed his face for a while, and finally, he nodded and let him be. 

“Alright, buddy.” He said. “Whatever makes you happy.” 

“You know what makes me happy,” Minho answered. 

“No.” His answer was quick, way too quick. “I’m not spoon-feeding you, never again. I’m not drinking with you as well.” 

Minho just smiled, knowing very well that it won’t be so hard to change his attitude later. After all, both Hyunjin and Seungmin were whipped for him, and they couldn’t tell him otherwise. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so that's the official end!
> 
> I just want to say that I had sooo much fun while posting the chapters and I appreciate all the comments you guys left for me~ thank you so much for them and for the kudos, because every single one made me very happy <3 if you have any questions or just want to say anything you can still leave comments at any time, I'll gladly answer!
> 
> that's it, bye/see you!


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